Astronomers observing star clusters in our galaxy have found evidence that controversially challenges Newton's laws of gravity and could upend our understanding of the universe. The puzzling finding could support a controversial idea that does away entirely with dark matter.
The researchers found this evidence by observing open star clusters, or loosely bound groups of up to a few hundred stars sitting within larger galaxies. Open star clusters have trails of stars, known as "tidal tails," in front of and behind them. The researchers' observations indicate that such clusters have many more stars sitting in the overall direction of their travel through space than trailing behind. This throws into question Newton's law of universal gravitation, which suggests that there should be the same number of stars in both tidal tails.