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Max
Lv 5

Can a 'dark matter lens' be used to see the surfaces of planets in other galaxies?

I am very intrigued by the idea of a telescope powerful enough to see the surfaces of exoplanets in not just the Milky Way galaxy but other galaxies as well. I saw Cosmos with Neil Degrasse Tyson a few weeks ago and he said that gravitational lensing can be used to see the surfaces of exoplanets in the galaxy. Yet I want to take it a step further. In the Isaac Arthur Megatelescopes episode, at the end, Isaac said a hypothetical lens made of dark matter could warp spacetime and allow you to see much further distances, but did not specify how far. This article seems to back up his theory.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/889jaz/scientists-...

So basically, could a hypothetical dark matter lens be used to possibly see the surfaces of intergalactic exoplanets?

7 Answers

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  • Anonymous
    3 months ago
    Favorite Answer

    At present, we don't know how to do anything with Dark Matter.  You can't grab it with anything electromagnetic.  If you try to scoop it up, it might just flow right through.  As far as we know, the only way to move Dark Matter around is using gravity.

  • 2 months ago

    Dark matter may not exist or may be baryonic if it does.  I'm surprised he claimed that as I have a lot of respect for him but surely if dark matter is worthy of the name it can't interact with light.

  • 2 months ago

    Typical. These people blather on about everything they imagine "could" be done, but of course they are unable to specify how. Fairy dust perhaps?

  • Anonymous
    3 months ago

    You lost me at Neil Degrasse.

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  • ?
    Lv 7
    3 months ago

    No, probably not. 

  • 3 months ago

    I’m not going to say it’s impossible. But we’re going to need to shape a whole galaxy’s worth of DM into a suitable shape. I might speculate that our technology isn’t going to be able to do that for a few years ...

  • Anonymous
    3 months ago

    i'll get me a double dose of hypothetical then and build one..

    i will procrastinate on posting my hypothetical findings.

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