Study plunges standard theory of cosmology into crisis

As modern cosmologists rely more and more on the ominous "dark matter" to explain otherwise inexplicable observations, much effort has gone into the detection of this mysterious substance in the last two decades, yet no direct proof could be found that it actually exists. Even if it does exist, dark matter would be unable to reconcile all the current discrepancies between actual measurements and predictions based on theoretical models. Hence the number of physicists questioning the existence of dark matter has been increasing for some time now. Competing theories of gravitation have already been developed which are independent of this construction. Their only problem is that they conflict with Newton's theory of gravitation. "Maybe Newton was indeed wrong", declares Professor Dr. Pavel Kroupa of Bonn University´s Argelander-Institut für Astronomie (AIfA). "Although his theory does, in fact, describe the everyday effects of gravity on Earth, things we can see and measure, it is conceivable that we have completely failed to comprehend the actual physics underlying the force of gravity".

This is a problematical hypothesis that has nevertheless gained increasing ground in recent years, especially in Europe. Two new studies could well lend further support to it. In these studies, Professor Kroupa and his former colleague Dr. Manuel Metz, working in collaboration with Professor Dr. Gerhard Hensler and Dr. Christian Theis from the University of Vienna, and Dr. Helmut Jerjen from the Australian National University, Canberra, have examined so-called "satellite galaxies". This term is used for dwarf galaxy companions of the Milky Way, some of which contain only a few thousand stars. According to the best cosmological models, they exist presumably in hundreds around most of the major galaxies. Up to now, however, only 30 such satellites have been observed around the Milky Way, a discrepancy in numbers which is commonly attributed to the fact that the light emitted from the majority of satellite galaxies is so faint they remain invisible.

A detailed study of these stellar agglomerates has revealed some astonishing phenomena: "First of all, there is something unusual about their distribution", Professor Kroupa explains, "the satellites should be uniformly arranged around their mother galaxy, but this is not what we found". More precisely, all classical satellites of the Milky Way – the eleven brightest dwarf galaxies – lie more or less in the same plane, they are forming some sort of a disc in the sky. The research team has also been able to show that most of these satellite galaxies rotate in the same direction around the Milky Way – like the planets revolve around the Sun.

The physicists do belief that this phenomenon can only be explained if the satellites were created a long time ago through collisions between younger galaxies. "The fragments produced by such an event can form rotating dwarf galaxies", explains Dr. Metz, who has recently moved across to the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (German Aero-space Center). But there is an interesting catch to this crash theory, "theoretical calculations tell us that the satellites created cannot contain any dark matter". This assumption, however, stands in contradiction to another observation. "The stars in the satellites we have observed are moving much faster than predicted by the Gravitational Law. If classical physics holds this can only be attributed to the presence of dark matter", Manuel Metz states.

Or one must assume that some basic fundamental principles of physics have hitherto been incorrectly understood. "The only solution would be to reject Newton´s classical theory of gravitation", says Pavel Kroupa. "We probably live in a non-Newton universe. If this is true, then our observations could be explained without dark matter". Such approaches are finding support amongst other research teams in Europe, too.

It would not be the first time that Newton's theory of gravitation had to be modified over the past hundred years. This became necessary in three special cases: when high velocities are involved (through the Special Theory of Relativity), in the proximity of large masses (through the theory of General Relativity), and on sub-atomic scales (through quantum mechanics). The deviations detected in the satellite galaxy data support the hypothesis that in space where extremely weak accelerations predominate, a "modified Newton dynamic" must be adopted. This conclusion has far-reaching consequences for fundamental physics in general, and also for cosmological theories. ¬¬Famous astrophysicist Bob Sanders from the University of Groningen declares: "The authors of this paper make a strong argument. Their result is entirely consistent with the expectations of modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND), but completely opposite to the predictions of the dark matter hypothesis. Rarely is an observational test so definite."

Metz, Manuel; Kroupa, Pavel; Theis, Christian; Hensler, Gerhard; Jerjen, Helmut: Did the Milky Way dwarf satellites enter the halo as a group? (The Astrophysical Journal 2009; doi: 10.1088/0004-637X/697/1/269)

Metz, Manuel; Kroupa, Pavel; Jerjen, Helmut: Discs of Satellites: the new dwarf spheroidals (Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 2009; doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.14489.x)

Contact: Professor Dr. Pavel Kroupa Argelander-Institut für Astronomie der Universität Bonn Telephone: 0228/73-6140, E-Mail: pavel@astro.uni-bonn.de

Dr. Manuel Metz Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) Telephone: 0228/447-511, E-Mail: manuel.metz@dlr.de

Hallelujah brother! If you really want to get them cranked up, let it be known that you think their great, great, great, .... , great grandpappy was an ape. I find it amazing that ignorance is expressed as a necessary tool in the defence of obviously weak faith. I suspect you also yearn for the days when being a conservative meant you agreed with the likes of Bill Buckley and Barry Goldwater with Everret Dirksen as the center of the Republican party with a Nelson Rockefeller on the far left. It increasingly seems to me that one must hang out with left wing pinko parasite redistributionists or girly men neo isolationist libertarians to find an intelligent view of the universe.

I said, "If you just argue about what a couple of thousand year old text has to say, whether it is the Bible, or the Koran or the Epic of Gilgamesh, you’re going to be stuck with 2000 year old world views."

You replied, "That is untrue. Arguing, in the classical-logic sense is a good way to gain understanding, and to convey that actual knowledge."

My rebuttal is as follows:

Ancient Aristotle, the "founder" of classical logic, had people convinced (and quite reasonably so) that the world around them was made from 4 elements, Earth, Wind, Fire and Water, I believe. His arguments were sound, with the information available to him at the time. "Arguing, in the classical-logic sense" can only take you so far. The advancement of knowledge requires the continued testing of the environment around us, re-applying what we have learned earlier. If we only studied Aristotle's texts today, we would be arguing about how much more "Air" a feather contains than a stick of wood. Of course that sounds silly to us today with our better understanding of the nature of matter, but that knowledge was gained from thousands of years of human effort.

As a concrete example, I offer the strict Koran based Muslim cultures around the world. Their "scientists" publish articles "proving" that Mecca is the center of the world, and other foolish claptrap.

“I will stick with the truth of Christ, you can stick with man made fairy tales about dark matter that cant be seen or tested, etc...”

God can’t be seen or tested either. By your own definition that makes God a fairy tale.

You should probably come up with a better test for ‘fairy tale’.

Rebel_Ace, thanks for your explanations of what science is all about. By its very nature it takes wrong turns once in a while, and dark matter might turn out to be one of those wrong turns. But also by its nature it tends to be self-correcting, though sometime only on the scale of generations. I fear that the boondoggle of “global warming” (which really isn’t even science in the first place but politics with a lot of scientists drafted to man the barricades) is one of those wrong turns that will take a generation to correct.

Dark matter could fall much more easily (if it is indeed an incorrect explanation) because there’s a lot less invested in it.

The thing about these scientific uncertainties (and I’m going to except global warming in this, because it is an act of politics and not science) is that they tend to exist at the edges of our understanding. So while they provide a convenient target for the Luddites to point out the supposed failures of science, they do nothing to subtract credibility from the huge body of knowledge we already have and the large number of theories that have stood the test of time.

No one doubts, for example, that the universe is expanding. It wasn’t that long ago when that was one of the uncertainties of science. We’ve moved on. Now we’re dealing with some of the esoterica of that expansion and we’re running into some difficulties. There’s no surprise in that.

Science always runs into difficulties. Solving previously unsolved mysteries of Life, The Universe and Everything is difficult. If it was easy, we wouldn’t need scientists.

LMAO!
Big time!

They’re trying to blame it on Newton, even though the papers have been full of items for the last thirty years braggin up Einstein, even thought we’ve been adamantly told for the last four decades or so to completely discard Newton’s theory...

So now that GR doesn’t cut the mustard, they want to blame Newton!

Hint number A:

Einsteins theory depends and requires a “classical vacuum”. Something we now know does not exist. Anytime. Anywhere.

CMAO!
(Chuckling my A off!!)

Einstein STOLE his ideas. It’s very well documented and proven.

>>So now that GR doesn’t’t cut the mustard, they want to blame Newton!

I think the discrepancy is due to an inadequate knowledge of space itself - i.e. variability of the “Classic Vacuum”.

If Space is to Energy as Energy is to Mass, then I suspect the observations attributed to “dark matter” can be explained by presuming a localized density of space - where spatial distortion is equivalent to E. “Dark matter” existing where E is locally sufficient to manifest the weak gravitational force (observable as gravitational lensing) but insufficient to manifest the strong forces required for the creation of matter.

If this is the case, then mass would be variable in proportion to the density of its spatial context.

G=M+E

IOW: Total Relative Gravity = Newtonian Gravity + Spatial Energy Density.

Though certainly some un-natural reasons have been manufactured by folks who generally seem to share a desire to live as though God is dead and they are He, I see no natural reason why scientific exploration of the universe should preclude the pursuit of a relationship with its Creator.

Admittedly, some would-be religious tyrants do disagree.

But that whole “Let there be light” thing?

Pretty good guess it seems - especially for a bunch of sheep herders who’d presumably never heard the QM notion that, one moment none of the energy in the universe existed - and the next it all was.

Quack, waddle: Bang, Big - One each.

I have long held that the correct description of Gravitational Force is NOT that it is dependent EXACTLY on the reciprocal of distance squared. A very small linear component seems possible to account for much of the difficulty that is seen in today’s cosmology. Another inference would be that the linear extent of the universe is greater than the “visible” universe. The anomalous force allowing galaxies to remain together is a result of the matter which is outside the visible universe- it is not “dark”, but is simply too distant to be seen.

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