Physics and Astronomy (R0)

Get ready to embark on the exciting search for dark matter—the invisible mass that dominates our universe. This popular science book explains why this mysterious dark matter has been incorporated into the standard model of the universe and how scientists are able to “observe” the invisible.

The book starts with the early indications of the existence of dark matter, including the strange cohesion of galaxy clusters, before moving on to modern observations like cosmic background radiation. Along the way, you will learn about the direct and indirect methods being used by researchers to track down dark matter and whatever is behind this strange phenomenon.

The Mystery of Dark Matter will appeal to general readers who wish to understand what scientists actually know about dark matter, along with the methods they use to help crack the mystery.

This book is a translation of the original German 1st edition Das Rätsel Dunkle Materie by WolfgangKapferer, published by Springer-Verlag GmbH Deutschland in 2018.The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence (machine translation by the service DeepL.com). A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content, so that the book will read stylistically differently from a conventional translation. Springer Nature works continuously to further the development of tools for the production of books and on the related technologies to support the authors.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

• Space observations of the zodiacal light.
• Helios zodiacal light experiment.
• Preliminary results of the helios a zodiacal light experiment.
• Pioneer 10 observations of zodiacal light brightness near the ecliptic: Changes with heliocentric distance.
• Star counts in the background sky observed from pioneer 10.
• The S10 (V) unit of surface brightness.
• Polarization of the zodiacal light: first results from skylab.
• Photometry of the zodiacal light with the balloon — borne telescope thisbe.
• OSO-5 Zodiacal Light Measurements 1969–1975.
• Evidence for scattering particles in meteor streams.
• The ultraviolet scattering efficiency of interplanetary dust grains.
• Summary of observations of the solar corona/inner zodiacal light from Apollo 15, 16, and 17.
• A temporal study of the radiance of the F-corona close to the sun.
• Measurements of the T-corona from daily OSO=7 observations.
• The thermal emission of the dust corona during the eclipse of June 30, 1973.
• The color characteristics of the earth-moon libration clouds.
• A search for forward scattering of sunlight from the lunar libration clouds.
• Presemtation of Zodiacal Light instrument aboard the D2B astronomical satellite.
• Visible and UV photometry of the gegenschein and the milky way.
• Ground-based observations of the zodiacal light.
• Polarimetry of the zodiacal light and milky way from Hawaii.
• Scattering in the earth's atmosphere: Calculations for milky way and zodiacal light as extended sources.
• Scattering layer of cosmic dust in the upper atmosphere.
• Some formulae to interpret zodiacal light photopolarimetric data in the ecliptic from ground or space.
• Discussion of the rocket photometry of the zodiacal light.
• Consequences of the inclination of the zodiacal cloud on the ecliptic.
• Method for the determination ofthe intensity of scattered sunlight per unit-volume of the interplanetary medium.
• On the visibility of the libration clouds.
• Scattering functions of dielectric and absorbing irregular particles.
• The compatibility of recent micrometeoroid flux curves with observations and models of the zodiacal light.
• In-situ records of interplanetary dust particles — methods and results.
• Preliminary results of the micrometeoroid experiment on board helios A.
• Composition of impact-plasma measured by a HELIOS-micrometeoroid-detector.
• Orbital elements of dust particles intercepted by pioneers 8 and 9.
• Flux of hyperbolic meteoroids.
• The cosmic dust environment at earth, jupiter and interplanetary space results FRO, Langley experiments on MTS, Pioneer 10, and Pioneer 11.
• Dust in the outer solar system - review of early results from Pioneers 10 and 11.
• Sources of interplanetary dust: Asteroids.
• Lunar microcraters and interplanetary dust fluxes.
• The size frequency distribution and rate of production of microcraters.
• The long term population of interplanetary micrometeoroids.
• Lunar soil movement registerd by the apollo 17 cosmic dust experiment.
• lectrostatic disruption of lunar dust particles.
• Microcraters produced by oblique incidence of projectiles.
• Measurements of Impact Ejecta Parameters in Crater Simulation Experiments.
• Impact light flash studies: Temperature, Ejecta, Vaporization.
• Submicron Particles from the Sun.
• Analysis of impact craters from the S-149 Skylab experiment.
• Micrometeorite impact craters on Skylab EXPERIMENT S-149.
• Extraterrestrial particles in the stratosphere.
• Magellan collections of large cosmic dust particles.
• Specific sources of extraterrestrial particles.
• Near-earth fragmentation of cosmic dust.
• Dust in comets and interplanetary matter.
• The production rate of dust by comets.
• Can short period comets maintain the zodiacal cloud?.
• Optical properties of cometary dust.
• The dust coma of comets.
• Dust emission from Comet Kohoutek (1973f) at large distances from the sun.
• Predicted favorable visibility conditions for anomalous tails of comets.
• Study of the anti-tail of Comet Kohoutek from an observation on 17 January 1974.
• Condensation processes in high temperature clouds.
• Mariner mission to Encke 1980.
• Meteors and interplanetary dust.
• Meteoroid densities.
• Possible evidence of meteoroid fragmentation in interplanytary space from grouping of particles in meteor streams.
• The heliocentric distribution of the meteor bodies at the vicinity of the earth's orbit.
• Fireballs as an atmospheric source of meteoritic dust.
• Interplanetary dust in the vicinity of the earth.
• Meteor radar rates and the solar cycle.
• Evolution and detectability of interplanetary dust streams.
• On the structure of hyperbolic interplanetary dust streams.
• Expected distribution of some of the orbital elements of interstellar particles in the solar system.
• Sources of interplanetary dust.
• Dynamics of interplanetary duest and related topics.
• Modeling of the orbital evolution of vaporizing dust particles near the sun.
• Orbital evolution of circum-solar dust grains.
• Temperature distribution and lifetime of interplanetary ice grains.
• Radial distribution of meteoric particles in interplanetary space.
• Rotational bursting of interplanetary dust particles.
• Lunar ejecta in heliocentric space.
• Radiation pressure on interplanetary dust particles.
• Are interplanetary grains crystalline?.
• A Technique for measuring the interstellar component of cosmic dust.
• The zodiacal light.
• In situ measurements of dust.
• Can comets be the only source of interplanetary dust?.
• Meteors.
• Final remarks.