Dark matter may not be needed to explain universe's mysteries
A new study from IIT physicist Naman Kumar suggests that some of the mysterious galaxy movements we usually blame on dark matter might actually be caused by gravity behaving differently across huge distances.
Instead of unseen particles, Kumar thinks gravity itself could explain why galaxies spin strangely and light bends more than expected—challenging the old idea that dark matter rules the universe.
Research published in Physical Review Letters B
Kumar's research, published in Physical Review Letters B, uses quantum field theory to show that gravity might not fade as quickly as we thought when you zoom out to galactic scales.
While this doesn't mean dark matter is totally out, it hints that we may need to rethink how much of the universe's weirdness is due to invisible stuff versus just gravity being more complex than our textbooks suggest.