
From Mark Anderson at New Scientist:
First test of rival to Einstein’s gravity kills off dark matter
A controversial approach to gravity that challenges Albert Einstein and suggests dark matter doesn’t exist has passed its first test.
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Now, a team of astronomers studying the distribution of matter in more than 30,000 galaxies say their observations can be explained by an alternative theory that does away with dark matter. If this “modified gravity” is correct, it would up-end hundreds of years of fundamental physics.
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To their surprise, they discovered the observed lensing could just as readily be accounted for by a new model of gravity, without invoking dark matter. More.
From Dominic Basuto at Sydney Morning Herald:
In her book, Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs, acclaimed Harvard theoretical physicist Lisa Randall outlines a complex – and radical theory – that goes something like this: about 66 million years ago, gravitational perturbations caused by a thin pancake-shaped disc of dark matter in the Milky Way galaxy dislodged icy comets in the Oort cloud at the very edge of the known solar system, resulting in the fiery meteoroid that eventually crash-landed in the Yucatan, leading to the mass extinction of more than 75 per cent of life on the planet in the process.
Doubtless, when they all meet up at Le Bistro NonCompute, they can sort it out.
See also: Once more:“What if dark matter doesn’t exist?”
Dark matter: Skeptics wanted
and
How do dark energy and dark matter relate to ID?
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