New submitter elsurexiste writes "An Italian Physicist came up with a strange way to explain anomalous galactic rotations without dark matter, instead relying on the gravitational effects of faraway matter. The article explains, 'Conceptually the idea makes little sense. Positioning gravitationally meaning mass outside of the orbit of stars might draw them out into wider orbits, but it’s tough to see why this would add to their orbital velocity. Drawing an object into a wider orbit should result in it taking longer to orbit the galaxy since it will have more circumference to cover. What we habitually see in spiral galaxies is that the outer stars orbit the galaxy within much the same time period as more inward stars. But though the plan agent seems a little implausible, what is remarkable about Carati’s claim is that the math outwardly deliver galactic rotation curves that closely fit the observed values of at least four known galaxies. Indeed, the math delivers an extraordinarily close fit.' As usual, these are extraordinary claims that divert from the consensus, so keep a healthy skepticism. The paper is easy at the arXiv (PDF)."

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