Many cosmologists think that nearly 99 percent of the universe is unobservable and made of dark matter. The universe we do see, the stars, galaxies, and literally everything else, only constitutes about 1 or 2 percent of the total amount of matter in the universe. The rest is some strange and unknown form of matter, particles that are necessary for the big bang theory to work. Theorists realized that there is just too little matter in the universe for the gravitational forces to have created the universe in the form that it's in today. So something has to create the needed gravity, hence the theory of dark matter. This idea was introduced about 20 years ago and has since become a fundamental part of the big bang cosmology.
Plasma is regarded as a fourth phase of matter, the other three being solid, liquid, and gas. It is a hot state of matter in which electrons have been stripped from atoms to leave positively charged ions, which mingle freely with the electrons. The Northern lights are a naturally occurring form of plasma, as is St. Elmo's fire. You've probably seen the “Eye of the Storm” or similar plasma balls in stores. They're those really cool objects that have the tiny electrical storms inside the glass spheres. When you bring your hand in contact with the glass surface, the bolts of plasma electricity inside react to ions surrounding your hand.
• It predicts that there should be no object older than 20 billion years and larger than 150 million light years across. And as we've discussed, that's certainly not the case.
• It predicts that the universe, on the large scale that it exists, should be smooth and homogeneous. It's not—it's clumpy!
• The third problem has to do with the strongest evidence in support of it, cosmic microwave background radiation. In order for the universe to produce the galaxies we see around us, the fluctuations found in the background radiation indicates that there must be a hundred times more dark matter than visible matter. But there is no experimental or observable evidence that dark matter exists. It's a theory to make the big bang work. So if there is no dark matter, the theory predicts that we can't have galaxies, but we live in one—the Milky Way.
So while the big bang predicts the things in the preceding list, observations have shown them to be incorrect. However, this is the accepted theory for now, and many scientists assume that it's right. To abandon it would not be easy. Few theories in science are ever left behind when there is no alternative in sight. So what are we left with? Well, there is a new alternative on the horizon. It's called plasma cosmology. Here's a basic idea of what it's about.
The advocates of plasma cosmology believe that the evolution of the universe in the past must be explained in terms of the processes occurring in the universe today. In other words, events that occur in the depths of space can be explained in terms of phenomena studied in the laboratories on earth. This approach rules out the concepts of a universe that began out of nothing, somewhere in time, like the big bang. We can't recreate the initial conditions of the big bang in laboratories. The closest we can get is in the particles created in accelerators. Plasma cosmology supports the idea that because we see an evolving universe that is constantly changing, this universe has always existed and has always evolved, and will continue to exist and evolve for eternity.
Another aspect of this new theory is that, while the big bang sees the universe in terms of gravity alone, the plasma universe is formed and controlled by electricity and magnetism, not just gravitation. With the introduction of electromagnetism the “clumpiness” of the universe and the fluctuations in microwave background radiation can be easily accounted for. Even the expansion of the universe can be explained by the electromagnetic interaction of matter and antimatter.
