Dark matter compresses the rotation of our Milky Way galaxy


Monday, June 21, 2021 05:00 PM

The Milky Way is spinning at a whopping 130 miles (210 kilometers) per second, but a new study finds that dark matter It has slowed the rotation of its ribbon by at least 24% since its formation approximately 14 billion years ago, and study co-author Ralph Schoenrich, an astrophysicist at University College London, said in a statement: Astrophysics The spin at the center of our galaxy is slowing down, but we found the first evidence of that happening.”

According to “space”, these new results do not shed light on the rotation of Milky Way Not only does it provide insight into the nature of one of the most elusive materials in the universe, dark matter.

The Milky Way is a narrow spiral galaxy with a thick band of stars in the center and large axial arms that stretch across the universe.

Scientists believe that a halo of dark matter surrounds the Milky Way, extending far beyond its visible edge, as it does in other galaxies.

The researchers used data from Gaia, a European Space Agency mission that maps the locations of billions of stars, to study the Hercules Stream, a thick group of stars that orbit the Milky Way at the same rate as the galactic bar.

Also, because the stars in the Hercules stream are gravitationally trapped by the axial ribbon, slowing the ribbon’s rotation will cause the stars to creep outward to keep their orbits in sync with the ribbon’s rotation.

The researchers found evidence of such cosmic motion when they investigated the chemical composition of stars, and the stars of the Hercules Stream are rich in heavier elements, indicating that these stars formed near the center of the galaxy, where stars are about 10 times richer in minerals than stars in the outskirts of galaxy.

Source : Technology: Study: Dark matter compresses the rotation of our Milky Way galaxy


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