And Just Like That… All the Imaginary Dark Matter in the Universe Disappeared
A new study of the orbital motions of long-period, widely separated, binary stars (referred to as wide binaries) provides conclusive evidence that standard Newtonian gravity breaks down at extremely low acceleration. The study carried out by Kyu-Hyun Chae, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Sejong University in Seoul, used data collected from 26,500 wide binary star systems within 650 light years, as observed by the European Space Agency (ESA) Gaia Space Telescope. Why study wide binaries? Because galactic disks and wide binaries share some similarities in their orbits, though wide binaries follow highly elongated orbits while hydrogen gas particles in a galactic disk follow nearly circular orbits. The clincher, however, is this -- Unlike galactic rotation curves, which can in principle be attributed to either dark matter or modified gravity, wide binary dynamics cannot be affected by dark matter, even if it existed. All the observed effects can only be explained by modified gravity. If these results can be confirmed as a breakdown of Newtonian Dynamics by independent analyses, and in time with even better and more precise data, then indeed we will be able to conclude that gravitation is Milgromian rather than Newtonian and there will be no further need for the fabricated concept of dark matter. The implications for astrophysics, cosmology, and for fundamental physics will be immense.
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Bob
History provides us with many examples where scientists have simply invented ideas out of thin air to help explain away things that are just not understood. In some ways, Dark Matter brings to mind another imaginary concept -- the so called "Aether Wind" of the 1800s. Back then, everybody just "knew" that space was filled with an "Aether Wind." The problem was that no one had ever seen it or measured it.
In 1887, Albert Michelson and Edward Morley set out to prove the existence of Aether Wind once and for all. Their experiment failed spectacularly in its attempt to detect any Aether Wind, but in the process they showed that the whole concept of Aether Wind, which most scientists at the time simply accepted as fact, was flawed -- There was no such thing.
Albert Michelson eventually won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1907 for this work and became the first American to do so.
Will the concepts of Dark Matter meet the same fate as the Aether Wind of the 19th century? Time will tell.
Yes, the aether was an convenient medium in which to propagate electromagnetic waves with sound and water waves as a strawman.
What is interesting is the modern concept that a vacuum is not really empty (aether-like). Supposedly, virtual particles are being created and destroyed continuously. Is this another DM/DE fantasy?
It does emerge from the quantum world and the uncertainty principle, so if that is valid, maybe that is as well.
Anyway lots of fun to think about. Thanks for posting this article.
Bob
Sky & Telescope had an article around the year 2000 (maybe) that pointed out that a modest nonlinearity in Newton's Law fully explained the effects blamed on Dark Matter. I was surprised that there were no other discussions based on this finding. Maybe MOND was what the article was about. However, as I recall, the S&T article said the nonlinearity was distance-related, not acceleration.
At first, I thought that perhaps Neptune might make a test of Chae’s finding, but turns out, that the acceleration on Neptune by the sun is 500x too great. At a distance 22 times that of Neptune, we have an acceleration in the range of Chae's binary stars. Turns out the inner diameter of the Oort Cloud is at 300 times Neptune's orbit. So there is another reason to find a method to observe the Oort Cloud.