James Webb Space Telescope launch is rescheduled again

[The Terminator]

Being a complete idiot when it comes to actual science, I’m just wondering if the ‘space’ between the seemingly innumerable galaxies shown in these incredibly detailed photographs, is what is referred to as ‘dark matter’ , and if not, then where does dark matter exist, and why’re the galaxies so distinct from each other ?

Plenty of great youtube videos on the subject. Basically it's matter that does not interact with light, at all. It does affect gravity... and it is everywhere. Inside you right now.

 

[Axlotl]

That picture that Gimpdiggity posted blows my mind. It's not the prettiest of all the pictures but what looks like a bunch of stars are galaxies...galaxies! Incredible!

I've got an image on my computer I downloaded from the NASA website, I think it's called Hubble Deep Field 2. It's a 5 gigabyte file (!), and it's a picture of a patch of sky no bigger than your thumbnail on your outstretched hand.
Viewing it zoomed out so you can see the whole picture it looks like a bunch of stars, but when you zoom in you see that every star is in fact a galaxy. There are around 250,000 galaxies in that one picture.
I don't have the link handy, but I'm sure you can Google it and download it yourself if you're interested.
I can't wait to see what kind of pictures the James Webb is going to take. The few it's already taken are mind blowing.

 

[Cephus]

Hubble deep fields:

The Hubble Deep Fields

esahubble.org

 

[CessnaDriver]

The ability to survey atmospheric composition of exoplanets is going to be a game changer.

I feel like this is going to open our eyes to things we wouldn’t have imagined just a generation ago.

We will know where to point the starships, when we have them.

 

[Axlotl]

Hubble deep fields:

The Hubble Deep Fields

esahubble.org

Awesome. Thanks.

 

[3Dsf]

Isn't it about time this thread be renamed to, "Phew! The JWST launched and actually works, and is delivering **** hot goods!" or something?

 

[Axlotl]

Here's a couple screen shots of that Hubble deep field image I was talking about. First one is the image sized to my screen (5%), the next two are random closeups (100%).
Apologies for the poor quality - my phone's camera is crap.
Oh, and it's called the Legacy Field.

 

[JediMichael]

These images are really awesome, like we all knew they would be. Can't wait to see what other things it takes.....like this.....

 

[gedmac66]

More than likely it is not dark matter. Current estimates are that about 80% of so of the matter in the universe is dark matter, but we have yet to actually observe it.

That space between the galaxies is…well…space!! Vast, empty (mostly) space. I believe the technical term is “intergalactic space.”

As for why galaxies are so distinct from one another…gravity. They start as clouds of dust and maybe a rogue star here and there, but then gravity kicks in and forms basically everything that we see…the stars, the planets…everything.

The constant expansion of the universe causes the galaxies to move, which I’m guessing is what stops all of them from just slamming into each other. If the universe were contracting, the galaxies would all be moving inward and end up getting balled into one. This is actually part of a hypothesis called the Big Crunch, where the expansion of the universe ends, then it begins contracting, ultimately to a tiny ball and possibly another Big Bang.

As for where dark matter exists…we aren’t exactly sure. In fact, we aren’t entirely sure it does exist, but we assume that it does because of the way galaxies act. Basically, the way that gravitational forces exist in the universe are stronger than the visible matter should allow. So, if there is something else impacting the way the gravity works, then there has to be a form of matter that we don’t understand yet. That is dark matter. There are several ideas as to what it could actually be, but until we are able to observe it, we don’t really have any idea.

Thanks very much, and really appreciate the explanation mate.
I’m guessing that the scientific theories that ‘we’ have, regarding nature and it’s natural phenomenons, may not perhaps hold true or at the very least at this point in time is yet to be discovered still.

Ged