Newton’s 300-Year-Old Law Passes Its Biggest Cosmic Test Yet

New observations of distant galaxy clusters suggest gravity still follows Newton’s inverse-square law and Einstein’s relativity on the largest cosmic scales.

Researchers used motion data from widely separated clusters, measured with the Atacama Cosmology Telescope, to test how gravity changes with distance.

The findings match standard theory, strengthening the standard model of cosmology and making alternative gravity ideas like MOND less likely.

The result also adds support for dark matter as the leading explanation for how the universe behaves at large scales.