Urbain Le Verrier, a French mathematician and astronomer, noticed a peculiar occurrence in 1859: Mercury strayed from the predictable orderly precession anticipated by Newtonian physics in its orbit around the Sun.
This strange anomaly could only be explained by the general theory of relativity, developed by scientist Albert Einstein in 1915, which explains how gravity causes curves in space-time. It could not be explained by unidentified planets pulling on Mercury’s orbit.
In the century that has passed, Einstein’s general theory has remained true, but his mind-bending model is unable to describe some aspects of the universe. It defies quantum mechanics and breaks down near the centers of black holes and at the beginning of the universe, for example. As a result, some physicists are considering alternative theories of gravity.
The finding of gravitational anomalies in widely apart twi
n stars at infinitesimally low acceleration is once again casting doubt on Einstein’s general theory, even though those hypotheses are still considered outliers.
Astrophysicist Kyu-Hyun Chae of Sejong University in Korea has conducted a new study in which he examined about 2,500 broad binary star systems seen by the European Space Agency’s Gaia space telescope. He concluded that conventional gravity is disintegrating in specific locations within these systems.
Midway through 2023, Chae initially reported discovering gravitational anomalies while studying the orbital motions of wide binaries. Chae believed these anomalies to be proof of modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND), a hypothesis of changed gravity.
Nevertheless, some physicists disagreed, arguing that the gravity of undetected close companions in the binary star systems had “contaminated” his sample. Put another way, it’s more plausible that interlopers hiding in the shadows were responsible for the larger-than-expected accelerations Chae saw in some wide binaries.
Thus, the physicist from Sejong University aimed to reevaluate his techniques using a more limited and refined group of “pure” binary stars. There are no issues there, as Chae discovered that closely orbiting twin stars behaved in a way that was consistent with classical Newtonian dynamics.
However, regardless of whether hypothetical dark matter was included in the models, binary stars separated by more than 2,000 astronomical units seemed to receive a velocity ‘boost’ at low accelerations, which is incongruous with what classical mechanics predicts.
“This gravitational anomaly implies a low-acceleration breakdown of both Newtonian dynamics and general relativity and so has immense implications for astrophysics, cosmology, and fundamental physics,” Chae writes in a recent paper.
“Thus, one cannot overemphasize the importance of confirming the claimed anomaly from as many independent studies as possible.”
While two investigations from the same researcher are light-years away from the independent verification theory-overturning results demand, Chae thinks his approaches are sound. That being said, he acknowledges that theoretical explanations for the reported anomaly are “wide open.”
But in his study, he also makes some bold statements, such as “standard cosmology based on general relativity seems no longer valid, even in principle,” and “the dark matter paradigm seems now doomed to be abandoned.”
Claims of this nature require absurdly robust proof, supported by numerous replications. Chae’s colleagues will undoubtedly review his work very carefully. Still, it’s through discoveries such as these that we may be able to fill in the blanks on the remaining mysteries of gravity.
“The evidence for the gravity boost in the low-acceleration regime is now clear enough,” adds Chae, “although the scientific community should keep gathering further evidence from future observations.”
The Astrophysical Journal has published the work.
Mercury's perdition problem was solved by Gerber not using relativity. Einstein stole his paper and published in his name.
The problem arose due to wrong mathematics. The mathematics of Surya Siddhanta doesn't have this problem.
There is nothing like spacetime curvature, because both space and time are infinite and can't curve.
Space is statics with energy flowing through it, while time is ever dynamic. Hence there is nothing as spacetime, because space doesn't move with time.