(CNN) Telescope with world’s largest digital camera will be a ‘game-changer’ for astronomy. Quoting,
Under construction since 2015, the telescope is named after pioneering American astronomer Vera Rubin, who died in 2016 and, among other achievements, first confirmed the existence of dark matter — the elusive substance that constitutes the majority of the matter in the universe, but has never been observed.
Big error! The existence of dark matter is unproven. Competition includes a variety of theories collectively referred to as modified gravity. Vera Rubin herself did not exclude alternative explanations; neither she nor the theoreticians who followed have, to this day, been able to determine what dark matter is made of — if it exists at all.
Rubin did not confirm the existence of dark matter. She was what we call an experimentalist, the first to systematically observe that galaxies rotate faster than predicted according to Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Preceded by Fritz Zwicky, it naturally occurred to her that missing, invisible mass might be responsible. But while Einstein’s theory is well tested on the scale of the solar system, benchmarks are lacking that would enable testing on galactic scale. Alternatives remain viable.
The article contains these errors of fact, procedure, and philosophy:
- Conflation of popularity of a theory with scientific truth.
- Failure to consult diverse sources.
- Failure to acknowledge the essential role of skepticism in scientific inquiry.
What’s left? The story of a new scientific instrument, named after a woman who spent her life seeking elusive truth. To honor her, honor the quality of her mind.
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