New Study May Prove Einstein’s Theory Of Gravity Wrong

Albert Einstein, in his theory, posits that gravity is a distortion of space caused by the presence of matter or energy, and a massive object generates a gravitational field by warping the geometry of the surrounding space.

However, a new, controversial approach challenges Albert Einstein's theory, suggesting that dark matter does not actually exist -- and this new theory already passed its first test. Today, a vast majority of physicists believe that gravity acts according to the rules set forth by Sir Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein himself. Science Alert noted that this theory was first proposed back in 2010, and it stated that gravity may behave very differently than Albert Einstein predicted -- and a study of over 30,000 galaxies now serves as the first evidence to back up the claim.

"Verlinde's hypothesis of gravity," as the hypothesis is called, came from Erik Verlinde at the University of Amsterdam. If the hypothesis can stand up to further testing, it can overhaul over a century of physics, including getting rid of dark matter. This is especially important considering that people's current understanding of gravity does not account for everything that they see in the universe.

In fact, researchers have shown that there is more gravity in the universe that can be produced by all the visible matter. To explain this, Albert Einstein came up with dark matter -- a mysterious force that forms all the extra gravity that cannot be explained. Erik Verlinde stated that people may not need dark matter -- they just have to rethink their approach to gravity instead.

Still, not everyone is sold on the new theory. New Scientist reported that Margot Brouwer from Leiden University said that the dark matter model actually fits better than the data presented by Erik Verlinde. "But then if you mathematically factor in the fact that Verlinde's prediction doesn't have any free parameters, whereas the dark matter prediction does, then you find Verlinde's model is actually performing slightly better."