The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, two of the Milky Way's better-known satellite galaxies.
Credit: Bessell and Sutherland, Mt Stromlo Observatory, Canberra.
A new project covering the Southern Hemisphere sky, the Stromlo Missing Satellites Survey, will be critical for studying the strange behaviour of the dwarf galaxies and formulating theories to explain it.
Emma Ryan-Weber, an astrophysicist at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, said that there's not enough evidence to warrant a re-write of Newton's theory just yet, though.
"While everyone agrees that the distribution of satellites around the Milky Way is a bit odd, I think most astronomers would say that it's a bit extreme to modify Newtonian gravity just to explain one system," she said.
Daniel Zucker, an astrophysicist at Macquarie University, in Sydney, agreed. “To say that the conclusions of the two papers... require alternate theories of gravity to what is currently accepted would be premature,” Zucker said.
However, if further studies do confirm the arrangement of satellite galaxies in discs, “it could pose serious problems for the leading paradigm of galaxy formation,” he said.
Revise gravity
I think it is too early to conclude that the gravity law be revised at this time. We need more data from SDSS and SMSS and see what happen. As of now, it is inconclusive. Spherical dwarf galaxies do show strong evidence of dark matter.
Rewrite the law of gravity?
Newton made one forgivable error in his "law". He assumed, without proof, that gravity is an ATTRACTION. Merely replace that word by "LACK OF REPULSION" and we arrive at a system whereby the whole of Space is a source of electro-magnetic waves which produce a force of repulsion on all matter. Gravity results from one body being shielded from this repulsion by the presence of another!
Newton's Law follows from this arrangement so long as the two bodies are close enough to prevent much of the repulsive source intervening between them. But separate the bodies by a cosmic distance and his Law becomes: " F=Gm1m2/d(squared)-k.d " so that when "d", the distance, becomes large enough, "F" becomes negative and the expanding Universe has an explanation.
Such a source of repulsion is produced if we can assume that Space is populated by electrons, and they are energised by radiation from the many suns. They will generate electro-magnetic waves with a frequency so high that they penetrate all matter and act upon the nucleus of each atom that they encounter, so generating the repulsive force that we require.