Modified Newtonian dynamics
Modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND) is a hypothesis that proposes a modification of Newton's second law to account for observed properties of galaxies. It is an alternative to the hypothesis of dark matter in terms of explaining why galaxies do not appear to obey the currently understood laws of physics. Created in 1982 and first published in 1983 by Israeli physicist Mordehai Milgrom, the hypothesis' original motivation was to explain why the velocities of stars in galaxies were observed to be larger than expected based on Newtonian mechanics. Milgrom noted that this discrepancy could be resolved if the gravitational force experienced by a star in the outer regions of a galaxy was proportional to the square of its centripetal acceleration (as opposed to the centripetal acceleration itself, as in Newton's second law) or alternatively, if gravitational force varied inversely with the radius directly (as opposed to with the inverse square of the radius, as in Newton's law of gravity). MOND departs from Newton's laws at extremely small accelerations that are characteristic of the outer regions of galaxies as well as the inter-galaxy forces within galaxy clusters, but which are far below anything encountered in the Solar System or on Earth.