MOND Mass-to-Light Ratios and Stellar Populations

One of the things I find most intriguing about MOND is just how reasonable the values for the stellar mass-to-light ratios are which it returns for spiral galaxies. This is evident in all bands, e.g., B & K (e.g., Sanders & Verheijen 1998).

Stellar mass-to-light ratios in the B and K' bands as determined by MOND fits to rotation curves (points) plotted against color. The general trend one expects of M_*/L increasing for redder populations is clearly present, and this effect is larger in B than in K', also as expected. Indeed, stellar population models are closely consistent with the observed values. Shown as lines are models taken from the completely independent population synthesis model of Bell et al. (2003).

The greatest threat in astronomy is not to life and limb, though that does sometimes happen. No, I'm talking about superstition. In this case, local custom had it that the universe was filled with cold dark matter...