Ripples in a pond ...
Gassho, J
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The Milky Way Is Mysteriously Rippling – Scientists Might Finally Know Why
Using data from the Gaia satellite telescope, a team headed by Lund University researchers in Sweden discovered that large parts of the Milky Way’s outer disk vibrate. The ripples are caused by a dwarf galaxy that passed by our galaxy hundreds of millions of years ago and is now visible in the constellation Sagittarius.
The Milky Way, our cosmic home, contains between 100 and 400 billion stars. The galaxy is thought to have formed 13.6 billion years ago, originating from a rotating cloud of gas composed of hydrogen and helium. The gas then accumulated over billions of years in a rotating disk, where stars like our sun were created.
The research team presents their findings on the stars in the outer regions of the galactic disk in a new study that was recently published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
The data revealed that a mysterious ripple was causing stars all around the galaxy to oscillate at different speeds.
“We can see that these stars wobble and move up and down at different speeds. When the dwarf galaxy Sagittarius passed the Milky Way, it created wave motions in our galaxy, a little bit like when a stone is dropped into a pond”, Paul McMillan, the astronomy researcher at Lund Observatory who led the study, explains.
https://scitechdaily.com/the-milky-w...ally-know-why/
Using data from the Gaia satellite telescope, a team headed by Lund University researchers in Sweden discovered that large parts of the Milky Way’s outer disk vibrate. The ripples are caused by a dwarf galaxy that passed by our galaxy hundreds of millions of years ago and is now visible in the constellation Sagittarius.
The Milky Way, our cosmic home, contains between 100 and 400 billion stars. The galaxy is thought to have formed 13.6 billion years ago, originating from a rotating cloud of gas composed of hydrogen and helium. The gas then accumulated over billions of years in a rotating disk, where stars like our sun were created.
The research team presents their findings on the stars in the outer regions of the galactic disk in a new study that was recently published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
The data revealed that a mysterious ripple was causing stars all around the galaxy to oscillate at different speeds.
“We can see that these stars wobble and move up and down at different speeds. When the dwarf galaxy Sagittarius passed the Milky Way, it created wave motions in our galaxy, a little bit like when a stone is dropped into a pond”, Paul McMillan, the astronomy researcher at Lund Observatory who led the study, explains.
https://scitechdaily.com/the-milky-w...ally-know-why/
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