Current data on the globular cluster Palomar 14 are consistent with MOND (Research Note)

Abstract

Context: Certain types of globular clusters have the very important property that the predictions for their kinematics in the Newtonian and modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND) contexts are divergent. Aims: Here, we advice regarding the recent claim that the stellar kinematics data (using 17 stars) of the globular cluster Palomar 14 are inconsistent with MOND. Methods: We compare the observations to the theoretical predictions using a Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, which is appropriate for small samples. Results: We find that with the currently available data the MOND prediction for the velocity distribution can only be excluded with a very low confidence level, clearly insufficient to claim that MOND is falsified. © 2010 ESO.