MovieChat Forums > Another Life (2019) Discussion > Dark matter? /not the show, the science ...

Dark matter? /not the show, the science thing/


I'm not 10 minutes in and they talk about dark matter hiding planets? Now, I'm no big city scientist (or any) but I'm not sure that's how it works. It's dark because you can't see it, because it doesn't interact with ordinary matter, not because it's literally dark and it obscures physical objects. Right?!

I can suspend my disbelief and I don't think a sci-fi show needs to be a 100% scientifically accurate, but boy does this bugs me for some reason. Why not make it a gas cloud or a supercharged blip-bloop field?

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I think you’re right about the dark matter thing. Unless the planet itself was made of dark matter I don’t see how it can obscure anything.

Why not make it a gas cloud or a supercharged blip-bloop field?

Gas cloud would make sense, but I’m not sure about that other one. I never went far enough in the sciences to learn all the advanced theoretical technical jargon.

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Oh, I just made up the Supercharged blip-bloop field. I think it sounds very cool and super dangerous. Dangerous enough to make you change course...

But yeah, a gas cloud would've been just fine.

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Then I think we should petition for the scientific big-wigs to use that name on some sort of astronomical phenomenon. It sure is fun to say.

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No, no, you’re very much correct. Dark matter(if it exists, remember it’s still theory at this point) doesn’t interact with thing like light. Which means it doesn’t show up on the electron magnetic spectrum. We only know it’s their based on its effects to things we can see. For example how galaxies are formed. Without dark matter, they would have drifted apart.

Honestly, I found the writing to be a pile of shit in many more ways than that. Travelling faster than light with no relative effects at all, or any attempt to explain it away.

The crew were, from the very start, not who anyone would choose for a first contact mission. Talk about the wrong stuff.

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The funny thing is that I've watched enough sci-fi with FTL drives and wormwhole traveling and so on, with no accound for relativity, that that part doesn't bother me so much. But those shows were fun, so that more than makes up for the bad science.

You're right though, the writng has way bigger issues than dark matter, or the sciense in general. When did shows stop having good and likable characters that make you want to go on an adventure with them? But hey, those people might not be good astronauts, but at least they're great at martial arts...

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I am a big city scientist who works with dark matter. In fact, my lab is constructed exclusively with dark matter. So I can tell you this -- it hides everything. I can't even find my keys in this place.

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When they are traveling faster than light with no relativistic effects that says a lot.

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