Gravity isn’t what we thought it was, according to a new study that suggests the force of attraction between all objects in the universe is actually much stronger than previously believed. The research published this week in Physical Review Letters could have major implications for our understanding of everything from black holes and dark matter, to how galaxies form and evolve over time.

“We’ve known that gravity has a repulsive component since Einstein first introduced his theory of general relativity 100 years ago,” lead researcher Jens Chamel from the University of California, Santa Barbara told ScienceAlert. But until now we haven’t been able to measure it.”

The team used data collected by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to study a cluster of galaxies known as Abell 3827 one of the largest and most massive structures in the universe. By measuring how fast stars were moving within this cluster, they were able to calculate its total mass using Newton’s laws of gravity.

But when they compared these results with measurements made by other telescopes that detect X-rays emitted from hot gas between galaxies, something strange happened. “We found that the gravitational pull calculated from the visible matter stars and galaxies was not enough to hold everything together,” Chamel explained. “There had to be some additional mass out there that we couldn’t see.”

This unseen mass is thought to consist of dark matter, a mysterious substance that makes up around 85 percent of all matter in the universe but doesn’t interact with light or other forms of electromagnetic radiation making it incredibly difficult to detect. But while this new study confirms the existence of dark matter once again, what’s really exciting is that it also provides evidence for a repulsive force that counteracts gravity and helps explain why galaxies don’t collapse under their own weight.

In simpler terms, this means that there’s more mass in the universe than we can see or measure with traditional methods. This unseen mass could be made up of dark matter, which is a mysterious substance that doesn’t interact with light but has been detected through its gravitational effects on visible matter. The study also suggests that gravity isn’t as simple as we thought it was there may actually be a repulsive force at play in the universe that helps explain why galaxies don’t collapse under their own weight. This could have major implications for our understanding of everything from black holes to how galaxies form and evolve over time.