Marcel S. Pawlowski | The Dark Matter Crisis

Marcel S. Pawlowski: ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I am a PhD student at the University of Bonn (Germany), working with Prof. Pavel Kroupa. My research is concerned with the phase-space distribution of the Milky Way's satellites (dwarf galaxies, globular clusters and tidal streams), their possible formation scenarios (in particular Tidal Dwarf Galaxies) and tests of cosmological models on (cosmologically) small scales. This is complemented by my interest in the philosophy of science and in science outreach. You can follow me on Twitter (@8minutesold) or find out more about me on my website (http://marcelpawlowski.com).

Marcel S. Pawlowski: All Posts

Scott Dodelson on dark matter and modified gravity (guest post)

Posted 9 March 2013 by Marcel S. Pawlowski

Following the recent incident, we and the SciLogs team decided to invite a renown colleague to write a guest blog post. Thinking about possible guest bloggers who are experts in the field of cosmology and approach theories such as MOND with the necessary scientific skepticism, we arrived at Scott Dodelson as one candidate. Scott is a very well-respected cosmologist. He is a scientist at Fermilab and a professor in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics and the Kavli Institute for... Read more

Posted in Dark Matter, Guest Post, Modified Gravity |

6 Comments | Permalink

The Dark Matter Crisis continues: on the difficulties of communicating controversial science

Posted 8 March 2013 by Marcel S. Pawlowski

(Continuation of the series A-E) There has been an unsuccessful attempt to close down The Dark Matter Crisis. Here is the story (and an email by Jim Peebles): UPDATE: The guest post is now online. As regular readers of our blog know, and first-time readers may be able to guess from this blog name, Pavel and I mostly write about the problems and shortcomings of the dark matter hypothesis. One aspect of our research is to test dark matter models... Read more

Posted in Science Communication |

9 Comments | Permalink

Are there two types of dwarf galaxies in the universe?

Posted 7 March 2013 by Marcel S. Pawlowski

Dwarf galaxies, that is galaxies less massive than a few billion solar masses, are expected to be formed through two processes. They might either be the luminous components of small dark matter halos, formed early in the universe when gas fell into the potential well of those halos. These dwarf galaxies are called primordial dwarf galaxies (PDGs) and are expected to be dominated by their dark matter content. The other formation mechanism is a process observed even in the present-day... Read more

Posted in Dwarf Galaxies |

1 Comments | Permalink

Andromeda’s satellites behave as expected … if they are tidal dwarf galaxies

Posted 3 January 2013 by Marcel S. Pawlowski

Today's issue of Nature contains a very exciting study by Rodrigo Ibata et al. which might be a game-changer in the research areas of galaxy formation and near-field cosmology. It is titled “A vast, thin plane of corotating dwarf galaxies orbiting the Andromeda galaxy” and already now should be seen as a candidate for the most-exciting paper of 2013. UPDATE Jan. 4th: The article is now also available on the arXiv. Pavel Kroupa and I have been waiting for this... Read more

Posted in Satellite Galaxies |

3 Comments | Permalink