Overview
- Researchers using the Atacama Cosmology Telescope reported in Physical Review Letters that measurements across intergalactic distances match Newton’s inverse‑square law and general relativity.
- The study tapped the kinematic Sunyaev–Zel'dovich effect, where CMB photons scatter off hot gas in moving clusters, to extract the clusters’ motions from faint imprints in the cosmic microwave background.
- Analysis of hundreds of thousands of cluster pairs separated by tens to hundreds of millions of light‑years showed no flattening of gravity’s fall‑off.
- The results undercut modified‑gravity ideas such as MOND at these scales and strengthen the need for unseen dark matter, while leaving its particle identity unresolved.
- The collaboration of more than 40 researchers says sharper CMB maps and larger galaxy surveys will tighten these tests and could further pin down how dark matter shapes cosmic structure.