Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

AtomicSquid t1_ixiew4i wrote

Reply to comment by kuahara in Lopsided star cluster may disprove Newton and Einstein, controversial new study claims. An uneven distribution of stars in several nearby clusters may offer evidence of MOND — a controversial theory of gravity that disputes Newton and rejects the existence of dark matter. by nimobo

Tbf he was almost definitely wrong, we just don't know anything more right yet

1

HandMeDownCumSock t1_ixigcq1 wrote

Why do you say he was almost definitely wrong?

1

Dave10293847 t1_ixj2ug2 wrote

We kind of just made up dark matter and energy to make the equations work. From what I understand, without those two, supermassive black holes still lack the size to hold galaxies together. Then it doesn’t hold up at the quantum level. That’s the extent of my knowledge on it.

So basically, his math gets us to the right answer the vast majority of the time, but it doesn’t explain the super small or super big.

10

phoenixbouncing t1_ixjipjm wrote

This doesn't necessarily mean relativity's wrong, what it means is that there are parts of cosmology that we can't explain using relativity and hence have placeholders there whilst we work out what they are.

Of course relativity could be wrong, and a new theory might not need the placeholders, but in that case it's going to need to explain everything relativity does, and the formation of galaxies and the expanding universe, all whilst not having too many arbitrary constants.

5

DeusExHumanum t1_ixlen9y wrote

same with newtonian physics eh? it's a shame people forget what science is

1

HandMeDownCumSock t1_ixjhhpv wrote

Were his equations supposed to cover those things though?

2

Dave10293847 t1_ixji5wl wrote

Sort of. We took his equations and plugged them into simulations. Our galaxy was ripped apart. The gravity wasn’t sufficient enough to keep it together. So then we plugged in different variables (simplifying it here) to find what does keep the galaxy together, ran more calculations, and then coined that missing variable dark matter.

So either Einstein has some things wrong, we’re missing something major, or Einstein is right and we just need to find out what dark matter actually is.

5

phoenixbouncing t1_ixji82d wrote

For one thing relativity breaks down on the quantum scale, and there's nothing in the math to explain it.

Einstein spent the last years of his life trying to figure out how to merge his theory with quantum mechanics.

7