Does Modified Newtonian Dynamics Negate the Need for Dark Matter?
Galaxies rotate so quickly that they should fly apart according to the existing laws of physics. Two current theories attempt to explain this anomaly – the first places a halo of an imaginary and as of yet undetected substance called “Dark Matter” around every galaxy. The second, Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND), explains this by applying a mathematical compensation to Newtonian physics that strengthens the visible material’s gravity, but only where it gets very weak. Otherwise, gravity follows Newton’s conventional laws, as in our Solar System. Recently, an international group of astrophysicists has concluded that MOND provides a very viable explanation for the galaxy rotation anomaly and that Dark Mater does not exist. Their summary: It is remarkable that MOND continues to make such successful predictions based on equations written down 35 years ago. Throughout history, we have seen many examples where scientists have simply invented ideas out of thin air to help explain away things that are just not understood at the time. In some ways, Dark Matter and Dark Energy bring 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… And in 1887, when Albert Michelson and Edward Morley set out to prove the existence of Aether Wind once and for all, their experiment failed spectacularly -- There was no such thing. 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 and Dark Energy meet the same fate as the Aether Wind of the 19th century? Time will tell.
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The big challenge for MOND is on cosmological scales.