As an alternative to dark matter models, Modified Gravity (MOG) theory is a covariant modification of Einstein gravity. The theory introduces two additional scalar fields and one vector field. The aim is to explain the dynamics of astronomical systems based only on their baryonic matter. The effect of the vector field in the theory resembles a Lorentz force where each particle has a charge proportional to its inertial mass. The weak field approximation of MOG is derived by perturbing the metric and the fields around Minkowski space–time. We obtain an effective gravitational potential which yields the Newtonian attractive force plus a repulsive Yukawa force. This potential, in addition to the Newtonian gravitational constant, G_N, has two additional constant parameters α and μ. We use The H i Nearby Galaxy Survey catalogue of galaxies and fix the two parameters α and μ of the theory to be α = 8.89 ± 0.34 and μ = 0.042 ± 0.004 kpc⁻¹. We then apply the effective potential with the fixed universal parameters to the Ursa Major catalogue of galaxies and obtain good fits to galaxy rotation curve data with an average value of

We report the first unambiguous detection and mass measurement of an isolated stellar-mass black hole (BH). We used the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to carry out precise astrometry of the source star of the long-duration (t _E ≃ 270 days), high-magnification microlensing event MOA-2011-BLG-191/OGLE-2011-BLG-0462 (hereafter designated as MOA-11-191/OGLE-11-462), in the direction of the Galactic bulge. HST imaging, conducted at eight epochs over an interval of 6 yr, reveals a clear relativistic astrometric deflection of the background star’s apparent position. Ground-based photometry of MOA-11-191/OGLE-11-462 shows a parallactic signature of the effect of Earth’s motion on the microlensing light curve. Combining the HST astrometry with the ground-based light curve and the derived parallax, we obtain a lens mass of 7.1 ± 1.3 M _⊙ and a distance of 1.58 ± 0.18 kpc. We show that the lens emits no detectable light, which, along with having a mass higher than is possible for a white dwarf or neutron star, confirms its BH nature. Our analysis also provides an absolute proper motion for the BH. The proper motion is offset from the mean motion of Galactic disk stars at similar distances by an amount corresponding to a transverse space velocity of ∼45 km s⁻¹, suggesting that the BH received a “natal kick” from its supernova explosion. Previous mass determinations for stellar-mass BHs have come from radial velocity measurements of Galactic X-ray binaries and from gravitational radiation emitted by merging BHs in binary systems in external galaxies. Our mass measurement is the first for an isolated stellar-mass BH using any technique.

We apply the weak field approximation limit of the covariant scalar–tensor–vector gravity theory, so-called MOdified gravity (MOG), to the dynamics of clusters of galaxies by using only baryonic matter. The MOG effective gravitational potential in the weak field approximation is composed of an attractive Newtonian term and a repulsive Yukawa term with two parameters α and μ. The numerical values of these parameters have been obtained by fitting the predicted rotation curves of galaxies to observational data, yielding the best-fitting result: α = 8.89 ± 0.34 and μ = 0.042 ± 0.004 kpc⁻¹. We extend the observational test of this theory to clusters of galaxies, using data for the ionized gas and the temperature profile of nearby clusters obtained by the Chandra X-ray telescope. Using the MOG virial theorem for clusters, we compare the mass profiles of clusters from observation and theory for 11 clusters. The theoretical mass profiles for the inner parts of clusters exceed the observational data. However, the observational data for the inner parts of clusters (i.e. r < 0.1r₅₀₀) is scattered, but at distances larger than ∼300 kpc, the observed and predicted mass profiles converge. Our results indicate that MOG as a theory of modified gravity is compatible with the observational data from the Solar system to megaparsec scales without invoking dark matter.

We present high-precision photometry of two transit events of the extrasolar planetary system WASP-5, obtained with the Danish 1.54-m telescope at Eu