Was Einstein wrong?

[AW111]

I think people get confused by "dark matter", and think it's a real thing.
As I understand it, the concept was originally something like :



These galaxies behave as if they have more mass than we can detect.
We will refer to the "missing mass" as "dark matter" until we work out what's going on.

[Flooble]

Yes, exactly, like the cosmological constant that was added to allow for a static universe and then removed when it was realised the universe was expanding, and then added again when the expansion was found to be too large to be explained without it.

It may be the simplest "fix" and isn't quite in the league of endless epicycles trying to describe the movement of the planets with an earth-centric solar system, but it still "feels" as though there should be an equation that doesn't need the addition of an extra observed number to make it "work".

[kiseca]

Newarch said:

mmm-five said:

Not wrong, just right with the available data at the time

This. I am alternately amused and appalled by the use of terms like 'the science' these days, as if the entire mass of scientific explanation is internally consistent.

Theories to explain scientific phenomena are often described as place markers a idea which covers all the know facts until it can be replaced with something better or more refined based on more or better informed research.

Scientific research is (or should be) a dynamic process whereby existing theories are tested or challenged in respect of their validity, especially when new data becomes available.

Why complicate it? The universe is the way it is. We either describe it, or parts of it, accurately, or we don't. If he was wrong, then he was wrong. Or half-right. It doesn't make him any less of a genius nor does it make his work any less useful.

Anyway seems a bit early to call it either way.