Abstract
Astronomers using new, improved spectrographic equipment to study galactic rotation during the 1970s initially presumed that spiral galaxies were ‘standard’ orbital systems, just like the Solar system, and that the laws of planetary motion should apply. As a result, when the rotational velocities of disk objects were found to be generally flat at all peripheral radii, conflicting with characteristic Keplerian rotation curves, it was concluded that either classical mechanics had been falsified at large scales, or that some enormous, undetected form of matter must be present to extend the distribution of galactic mass to very large radii. The procedural assessment conducted here shows that very large scale aggregations of massive objects cannot be expected to rotate like the highly centralized mass of the Solar system. Newton proved long ago that Keplerian relations specifically apply only to the mass distribution inherent in the Solar system. As a result, no galactic dark matter need be inferred from any discrepancy with Keplerian rotation curves.
James T. Dwyer