Astronomy's Mass Confusion (Short Version)

The Missing Mass Problem & Dark Matter

The core challenge in modern astronomy, often called the "missing mass" problem, arose when observations showed that the visible matter in the universe--stars, gas, and dust--couldn't account for the observed gravitational effects. Early studies by Jan Oort and Fritz Zwicky in the 1930s indicated that galaxies and galaxy clusters required significantly more mass than could be seen to prevent them from flying apart. This discrepancy was dramatically confirmed by Vera Rubin and Kent Ford in the 1960s and 70s, whose detailed plots of galactic rotation curves showed that stars on the outer edges of galaxies were orbiting unexpectedly fast.

The Dark Matter Hypothesis & Its Critics

To reconcile these observations with the established laws of gravity (Newton's and Einstein's), astronomers postulated the existence of dark matter--a hypothetical, invisible substance with gravitational force but no electromagnetic interaction. This became a mathematical "fudge factor" to make the equations match the observations. The current consensus holds that approximately 96% of the universe is composed of unseen components (dark matter and dark energy), with ordinary atomic matter making up only about 4%. However, despite decades of searching, scientists have found no direct evidence for the exotic particles required by the dark matter hypothesis, leading critics to view it as an unproven, ad hoc solution.

The Alternative: Plasma Cosmology

The root of this "mass confusion" is a scientific blind spot: the reliance on a gravity-only paradigm. An alternative approach, plasma cosmology, acknowledges that over 99.9% of the universe is plasma, a highly electrically charged state of matter. The universe's large-scale structure and dynamics, including the fast-moving outer parts of galaxies, are driven not solely by gravity but by powerful electromagnetic forces like electric currents and fields. The rotational anomalies attributed to dark matter are naturally explained by plasma dynamics, offering a testable physical solution without resorting to imaginary mass.

Full article here.