The James Webb Space Telescope’s discovery of unusually bright and massive galaxies soon after the Big Bang has cast doubt on the standard model of galaxy evolution and bolstered a rival theory for how physics may work on large scales, according to a team of astronomers.
Some of the earliest galaxies in the cosmos are far heavier and brighter than previously believed, according to astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The discovery could support a dark matter alternative hypothesis.
Only faint light should be seen from the early galaxies that formed in the first billion years following the Big Bang, according to the traditional hypothesis of galaxy formation. Modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND), a competing theory, has predictions that are supported by the extraordinarily big and brilliant galaxies seen by JWST. The Astrophysical Journal published the researchers’ results on November 12.
“What the dark matter theory predicted is not what we see,” said Stacy McGaugh, the principal author of the study and an astrophysicist at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. The main point is, ‘I told you so.’ Although I was brought up to believe that expressing something was impolite, the scientific method’s main goal is to make predictions and then determine which of them come true.
According to MOND, Newton’s laws fall apart and need to be replaced by new equations for gravitational forces that are 10 trillion times lower than those experienced on Earth’s surface, such the tugs felt between distant galaxies. In an effort to explain the faster-than-expected rotations observed on the periphery of distant galaxies, Israeli physicist Mordehai Milgrom originally put out the hypothesis in 1982.
Among its many achievements, MOND has contributed to the discovery of surprising principles governing the motion of galaxies in space. However, because the theory has not yet been able to explain a large number of cosmological occurrences, astronomers, who have a tendency to favor cold dark matter explanations, continue to dismiss it. However, while dark matter theories may account for many observations, they are unable to account for the ones that MOND correctly predicted.
The researchers combed through JWST data, which captured the faint signals of some of the universe’s oldest galaxies, in an attempt to find hints that would end the impasse. Their analysis found that these old galaxies have become far larger and brighter than predicted by traditional dark matter theories, yet they are exactly what MOND predicted.
It’s still unclear exactly what may be generating the disparity. There are issues with the theory that the extra light is due to supermassive black holes that are expanding far more quickly than anticipated.
In the publication, the astronomers stated, “We are caught between two very different theories that appear irreconcilable despite applying to closely related but incommensurate lines of evidence.” It can’t be a coincidence; the basic force law that MOND proposed must be telling us something. It has made enough accurate a priori predictions. What that is is still as mystery as dark matter’s makeup.