The Mixed Rotational Reference Frame Effect (MiRRFe) hypothesis would explain the flat rotation curves of stars in spiral galaxies without requiring dark matter.  A study of the shape of old supernovae shells might be able to test this hypothesis.  

Introduction

The Mixed Rotational Reference Frame (MiRRFe) hypothesis suggests that stars in spiral galaxies are actually orbiting at their correct Keplerian values with respect to a Machian reference frame determined by both the local galaxy and the Universe at large.  It presents an alternative to the cold dark matter (CDM) hypothesis and the Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) hypothesis.  A good thing about the MiRRFe hypothesis is that it is easy to check.  If the idea turns out to have merit it would open up a new chapter in our understanding of astrophysics.

Supernova Remnants

Supernovae occur when a star undergoes gravitational compression sufficient to cause an enormous thermonuclear explosion.  Material is ejected radially in all directions.  They are enormously bright for months.  In a Type 11 supernovae there is a residual compact core object such as a neutron star, pulsar or black hole, spinning very fast (faster than a helicopter blade).  About 3 supernovae occur in the Milky Way every century.

Assume the pattern of matter ejected from a supernova has a distinctive shape, such as an expanding spherical shell.  If MiRRFe exists there will eventually be some distortion in the pattern of the ejected matter.  Material ejected towards the rim of the galaxy will look like it is being “blown” in a pro-grade direction by a cosmic wind.  In fact the material is just trying to conserve its momentum in a reference field that is itself rotating with respect to the Universe as a whole.  The speed of this reference frame rotation is revealed by the difference between the observed rates of stellar orbits and the Keplerian rates expected from Newtonian dynamics.

The local reference frame will be rotating faster at medium and large distances from the galactic core.  This will affect the trajectory of matter flung towards or away from the galactic core, such as happens as the result of a supernova.  Generally speaking there will be a tendency for an expanding sphere of supernova remnants to flatten, stretch and twist.  The flattening and stretching will be parallel to the plane of the galactic disc and the axis of rotation will be orthogonal to that plane.  The entire ensemble will be affected by radiation pressures if the supernova has created a central pulsar and this will complicate the remnant shell morphologies.  However, there are enough supernovae remnants in the Milky Way to check if there are some detectable traces of the flattening, stretching and turning.  The data should be available already.

Here is a preliminary visual examination of some Milky Way supernovae remnants. 

This is G11.2.  It is a supernova remnant in the direction of the galactic core and is about 43 light years wide.  Its age is currently in doubt.  The picture is a composite image using images taken in different wavelengths.  Recent X-ray observations from the Chandra space telescope have revealed twin jets of material from the core object. 

The massive explosion creates a shell of superhot material expanding outwards at a very rapid rate – thousands of km/second.  As the shell expands it sweeps up and heats up any interstellar matter it might encounter.  Just after the initial explosions, all the momentum is radially outwards.  The angular momentum of the initial object ends up in the core object, which is why it spins so fast.

After that it becomes more complicated. The core object can become a huge electromagnet.  It can continue to spew material and radiation in powerful jets.  Both of these can disrupt the expanding shell.  Although the morphologies of supernovae remnants are complicated, they are also rich in information and give many clues to how they have been formed.

CDM and MiRRFe predictions for Supernova Shells

In free space, and without major disruption from the compact core remnant, one would expect the shell as a whole to continue the orbit of its parent star.  It would be an expanding bubble instead of a compact star.  Each part of the shell can be considered to be a small satellite blasted radially outwards from location of the supernova.  Each of these satellites is acted upon by the gravity it experiences and its trajectory gives clues about the profile of that gravity field.

Prior to the 1970’s astrophysicists expected that the orbital speed of stars in spiral galaxies would decline in inverse proportion to their orbital radius, as predicted by Kepler’s laws and Newtonian mechanics.  Assume for the moment that this holds true exactly as expected.  Then as a supernova remnant travels outwards its tangential speed would exceed the tangential speed of everything else at that radius.  Relative to such material the remnant material would follow a curved trajectory forwards and outwards.  Material ejected towards the galactic core would have less tangential speed than everything else and it would follow a curved trajectory backwards and inwards. The overall effect would be to stretch, elongate and rotate the expanding spherical shell into a flattened football shape, with its long axis parallel to the galactic disc.

Redshift data available since 1967 shows that most of the stars in a galactic disc are actually travelling at the same tangential speed.  This is a gross departure from what was expected.  The initial response of astrophysics was to hypothesise that there must be enormous amounts of exotic cold dark matter in the halo of the galaxies, with sufficient gravity to account to stop the orbiting stars from flying outwards.  This was an understandable reaction as a lot of conventional dark matter had been discovered and a lot new particles were being discovered in atom smashing machines and cosmic rays.

 Since the observed tangential speeds of the orbiting stars were more or less all the same, there should be no effect on the overall shape of an expanding supernova shell.

 In the MiRRFE hypothesis there is no dark matter and the stars are actually travelling at their correct Keplerian velocities because the correct reference frame for understanding this is also rotating.  So the shape of expanding supernovae shells should show a tendency to flatten, stretch and rotate.

Over twenty supernova remnants in the Milky Way have good composite images from telescopes using a wide range of frequencies.

MiRRFe predicts:

1. a degree of pro-grade rotation of the shell over time
2. stretching of the shell with axis parallel to the galactic plane
3. if the supernova is ‘behind’ us  in the disc of the Milky Way, the supernova shell distortion would appear to us to be left side advancing, right side lagging
4. if the supernova is ‘outwards’ compared to us in the Milky Way the supernova shell distortion would appear to us to be its rim side stretching left, close side lagging right, top of axis off-centre right
5. if the supernova remnant is ‘in front’ of us: left side lagging towards us, right side stretching away
6. oblateness of the shell parallel to the galactic disc
7. effects 1-3 to be weaker for supernovae closer to the galactic core
8. effects 1-3 to be bigger for bigger/older supernovae
9. effect 3 should give a minor red/blue doppler shift for the edges of the supernova shell in front or behind us.

CDM does not predict these effects. 

The easiest test is simple visual examination of the spectroscopic data.  The best candidates are within the disc of the Milky Way, not close to the core and without a high degree of disturbance from a central pulsar.  The morphology of supernovae remnants in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies can be studied in detail by space based telescopes (notably Chandra in the X-Ray, Hubble in the visible and James Webb in the red/infrared) and by large radio arrays.

Here is a collection of supernovae images, all readily available in the public domain. They are all composite images with visual frequency data mainly from Hubble, and X-ray frequency data mainly from Chandra.  The sequence presented here starts with supernovae that occurred between us and the Core and then goes anticlockwise to the Behind direction, then the Rim direction and then the Front of us direction. 

But first some housekeeping:  Images are usually presented with the Earth’s north celestial pole at the top.  We are interested in the orientations with respect to the plane of the disc of the Milky Way.  I have estimated the direction of the North Galactic Pole using star charts and have shown my estimate with an arrow.  (I used a map of the celestial sphere that showed the plane of the Milky Way, drew a line through the object to the nearest part of the Milky Way and measured the inclination of this line to the lines of longitude.) A professional astronomer could do a much better job.

1.  Kestaven 79    in Aquila

In Milky Way disc, left of Core.  

Right Ascension (RA) 18h 52m  Declination (Dec)  +00 degrees.  

8,000 light years away   Seen: ~8000 BCE  Central remnant: pulsar 

 Galactic North:  62 deg. right  

 MiRRFe Prediction:  Not much expected.  A bit brighter on the right.

 Fit with prediction: Possibly. The pulsar complicates things. 

2.  Cassiopeia A 

In Milky Way between ‘Behind’ and ‘Rim’       RA 23h23m Dec +59 deg     

10,000 light years away     Seen: ~ 1667       Central remnant – neutron star 

Galactic North:  10 degrees right.

MiRRFe Prediction:  Axis developing parallel to disc.

Fit with Prediction:  Good.  Note: some high speed ‘knots’ recently detected.

3.  SN 1572  Tycho’s Nova  in Cassiopeia

Between Behind us and the Rim RA 00h25m Dec +64    

20,000 light years away     Seen:  1572       Central remnant:  none 

Galactic North:  5 degrees right.

MiRRFe Prediction:  Axis developing parallel to disc with top off-centre right. 

Fit with prediction:  Fair.  X-ray data has extra brightness off-centre right.  It’s a recent supernova but a bit of elongation should have started by now.

Note: SN 1572 might be between the spiral arms of the Milky Way where the MiRRFe might be expected to be a bit less. 

4.  3C 59  possibly SN 1151,  in Cassiopeia 

In Milky Way between Rim and Behind      RA 02h 05m  Dec +65  deg 

8,000 light years away   Seen: ~4000 BCE  Central remnant: neutron star. 

Note X- ray jets and swirls.  Galactic North: 2 deg. left  

MiRRFe Prediction: Flattened parallel to disc, left side advancing, right side lagging

Fit with prediction: Good agreement to the predicted shape.  But radiation pressures from the rotating core might be giving a false positive.  Redshift data needs to be examined to see if there is any evidence the shell is starting to turn.  

5.  SN 1054 Messier#1   The Crab Nebula in the horns of Taurus

Out towards the Rim RA 05h34m  Dec +22  degrees 

6,300 light years away     Seen: 1054 Central remnant:  Crab Pulsar 

Galactic North:  33 degrees left

MiRRFe Prediction:  Expect flattening with axis parallel to disc. Expect far side stretching left, close side stretching right, top of axis off-centre right. 

Fit with prediction:  Very good.  But the stretching could owe something to the pulsar.

6  G292.0+018 in Crux 

In Milky Way disc, between Front and Core RA 11h 25m  Dec -59 deg

17,600 light years away   Seen: ~900BC   Central remnant: neutron star

Galactic North:  Rotate 10 deg left

MiRRFe Prediction: Left coming towards us, right side bending away.

Fit with prediction:  Hard to tell.  Spectroscopic information required.

7.  G299.2-2.9  in Musca just below Crux 

In Milky Way disc.  Left of Front of us RA 12h 15m  Dec -65.5 deg  

16,000 light years away   Seen: ~2500 BCE  Central remnant: none

Galactic North: 2 deg. left

MiRRFe Prediction: Minor stretching, left side towards us, right side away

Fit with prediction: Hard to tell.  Is the right ear bending away?  Spectroscopic analysis would reveal this.

8.  SN 1006  in Lupus

 Above disc, half way between Front and Core RA 15h02m Dec -42 deg 

 7,200 light years away  Seen:  1006    Central remnant:  none 

 Galactic North: 21 degrees right

 MiRRFe Prediction: Expect flattening. Expect upper back left stretching left, upper front right stretching right.  

 Fit with prediction: Fair.

9.  RCW 103 in Norma 

In Milky Way, right of Core RA 16h 17.5m  Dec -51 deg  

10,000 light years away   Seen: 1^st century    Central remnant: a surprising slow neutron star (shown), possible dark binary companion. 

Galactic North:  30 degrees right

MiRRFe Prediction: Flattening and axis development parallel to disc. Left side lagging towards us, right side advancing away. 

Fit with prediction: Quite good.

Note: Red, green and blue correspond to low, medium and high intensity X-rays

Conclusion

The Mixed Rotational Reference Frame effect (MiRRFe) hypothesis is that stars in galactic orbit are actually travelling at their correct Keplerian velocities and the rest of their apparent velocity is due to dragging of the relevant inertial reference frame within the galaxy.  MiRRFe predicts effects for the supernovae shells as they expand that are not predicted using the Cold Dark Matter hypothesis.  Supernovae shells morphologies can therefore provide a way of testing the MiRRFe hypothesis.  An initial (non-expert) visual examination of nine supernovae shells seems promising.  The data for most of this should be available already.  A more thorough examination, including detailed spectroscopic analysis and numerical simulations might be suitable for a PhD project.  

Reference

Van de Vusse, Sjoerd B.A., 2024, Some ideas and experiments for issues affecting modern physics,  https://hereticalphysics.com.au
Author contact:  SBAvan@utas.edu.au
Author’s location:  Hobart, Australia