HACKER Q&A
📣 blinding-streak

Is the JWST likely to shed light on dark matter theories?


I thought this discussion was really interesting a couple days ago:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32414870

The James Webb telescope wasn't mentioned much, so I was curious if anyone knows how the capabilities of this amazing telescope may impact the study and plausibility of dark matter.

Thanks!

  👤 ggm Accepted Answer ✓
If DM is capable of having a distorting effect on the signal which can be measured itself by some kind of differential analysis, and if the DM theory doesn't demand its equally distributed (entropy?) Then it might be possible some aspect of distortion in signal can be used to map the field of DM, as it is understood in this context.

Arguably, "older" more distant data might help in some aspect of this. The classical mechanics example here is the way use of the less moving star field was used to understand the mechanics of planets in the solar system: sometimes having a frame of reference which includes distant things, helps with measurement of less distant things.