Milky Way may be ‘thinner’ than previously thought – researchers
- October 6, 2022
- 0
A group of Chinese and Australian researchers measuring the mass of the Milky Way galaxy stated that it is about 550 billion times greater than the mass of
A group of Chinese and Australian researchers measuring the mass of the Milky Way galaxy stated that it is about 550 billion times greater than the mass of the Sun.
As reported by Ukrinform, this was reported by Xinhua.
This figure is almost half the average value measured by other research groups, suggesting that the Milky Way is about 1 trillion times heavier than the Sun.
“Our latest results suggest that the Milky Way may be thinner than we thought. This means that there is gravitational dark matter in the galaxy, although not much less luminous than previously thought,” he said.
According to him, mass is crucial to understanding galaxy dynamics. However, high uncertainty was observed in its assessment due to limited observations.
In this study, the scientists obtained results based on data from China’s LAMOST optical telescope and the European Space Agency’s Gaia satellite.
The large sample of spectroscopic data provided by LAMOST is one of the main advantages of this work over others.
“The sample is not only large in number and coverage, but also captures the three-dimensional /3D/ position, 3D velocity and metal content of each star,” Xiangxiang said.
As Ukrinform reported, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) space probe Juno took a photo of the surface of Europa, a moon of the planet Jupiter.
Source: Ukrinform
I’m Maurice Knox, a professional news writer with a focus on science. I work for Div Bracket. My articles cover everything from the latest scientific breakthroughs to advances in technology and medicine. I have a passion for understanding the world around us and helping people stay informed about important developments in science and beyond.
