Beyond Newton

Book excerpt: How can a star, distant from us, gravitationally affect our Sun? Where is the missing 95% of matter in the universe? Do dark matter and, even, black holes really exist? Astronomers explain their views relying on the 17th and 18th century tools of their forefathers, Kepler and Newton: gravity, fluid mechanics, and the magnetism of loadstone, rather than those of the 19th century - James Clerk Maxwell and electromagnetic field theory. Beyond Newton explores the challenges to current astronomy by scientists who have discovered that the entire volume of our galaxy is filled with diffuse clouds of magnetized plasma - electrically charged ionized particles.