Ask Ethan: Do binary stars prove modified gravity?

<p>One of the most bizarre and puzzling aspects of nature is&nbsp;<a href="https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/5-truths-dark-matter/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">the existence of dark matter</a>: a massive species of particle whose&nbsp;<a href="https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/5-truths-dark-matter/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">effects are easily seen</a>, but that has&nbsp;<a href="https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/xenon-no-dark-matter/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">eluded every attempt at direct detection</a>&nbsp;thus far. The cosmic need for dark matter is undeniable, although many hold out hope that perhaps a different tactic &mdash; adding a modification to the laws of gravity &mdash; will lead to an alternative solution that does away with dark matter and supersedes Einstein&rsquo;s General Relativity all at once. All efforts to modify gravity run into enormous difficulties on cosmic scales, but one specific modification, despite its large-scale cosmic failures, has proven itself more successful than dark matter on galactic scales: MOND, or MOdified Newtonian Dynamics.</p> <p><a href="https://medium.com/starts-with-a-bang/ask-ethan-do-binary-stars-prove-modified-gravity-8c9d19da6ddc"><strong>Read More</strong></a></p>