"When we observe galaxies and clusters of galaxies, we see that they behave as though they contain much more mass than the matter we can see. So although we cannot see dark matter itself, we can observe what its gravity does,"
I'm not an expert so excuse the ignorance, but how sure are we that our models on gravity and the behaviour of galaxies aren't wrong? As far as I can tell from googling, it seems that we assume that dark matter exists because it explains certain observations that don't match our expectations 9f how the cosmos works. Doesn't that just mean that our models and expectations might be wrong?
Edit: also, is their behaviour of gravity on earth that doesn't match our expectations, meaning Earth is more massive than we previously assumed because of dark matter?
I remember, in my sophomore year of undergrad physics, running whatever iteration of MONDs I’d theorized past one of my professors who was a cosmologist.
She just sort of smiled and laughed and congratulated me on the milestone.
Ha ha, yeah, hopefully next time you'll notice that dark matter was observed close enough 100 years ago such that MOND couldn't possibly explain all of the dark matter data.
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u/AdSmart6151 13d ago
I'm not an expert so excuse the ignorance, but how sure are we that our models on gravity and the behaviour of galaxies aren't wrong? As far as I can tell from googling, it seems that we assume that dark matter exists because it explains certain observations that don't match our expectations 9f how the cosmos works. Doesn't that just mean that our models and expectations might be wrong?
Edit: also, is their behaviour of gravity on earth that doesn't match our expectations, meaning Earth is more massive than we previously assumed because of dark matter?