Bibcode
Scarpa, Riccardo; Marconi, Gianni; Gilmozzi, Roberto; Carraro, Giovanni
Bibliographical reference
The Messenger, volume 128, page 41
Advertised on:
6
2007
Citations
26
Refereed citations
21
Description
We report on the results from an ongoing programme aimed at testing
Newton's law of gravity in the low acceleration regime using globular
clusters. We find that all clusters studied so far behave like galaxies,
that is, their velocity dispersion profiles flatten out at large radii
where the acceleration of gravity goes below 10 8 cm s 2, instead of
following the expected Keplerian fall-off. In galaxies this behaviour is
ascribed to the existence of a dark matter halo. Globular clusters,
however, are not supposed to contain dark matter, hence this result
might indicate that our present understanding of gravity in the weak
regime of accelerations is incomplete and possibly incorrect.