Magellanic clouds over Bromo Semeru Tanger National Park, Java, Indonesia. Credit: Gilbert Wensel-gvancell.com
The spiral-shaped disks of stars and planets are being violently pulled, twisted and distorted by the gravitational force of a small galaxy-large magellanic cloud (LMC).
Scientists believe that the LMC crossed the Milky Way galaxy about 700 million years ago – most recently by the standards of the universe – and that its massive dark matter disturbs the fabric and motion of our galaxy.
Its effects are still being felt today and should force us to rethink how our galaxy evolved, say astronomers.
The LMC, now the Milky Way’s satellite galaxy, looks like a whirlwind cloud in the Southern Hemisphere’s night skies – named after the 16th-century Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan.
Previous research has shown that LMCs, like galaxies, are surrounded by a halo of dark matter – elusive particles that surround galaxies and do not absorb or emit light but have a dramatic gravitational effect on the motion of stars and gases in the universe.
Using a state-of-the-art statistical model Dell that calculated the motion of the farthest stars in the Milky Way, a team from the University of Edinburgh discovered how LMC accelerated the speed of our galaxy. Study published in Nature astronomy, Was funded by the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC).
Researchers have discovered that the massive attraction of LMC’s dark matter halo, the galaxy’s disk, extends 32 km. At a speed of 115,200 kilometers per hour, gas is pulling and turning towards the gas.
To their surprise they also saw that the galaxy was not moving towards the current location of the LMC, previously thought, but towards a point on its past path.
They believe that this is because the LMC, driven by its massive gravitational force, is moving at a speed of 0,370 km / s from the Milky Way, at a speed of 1.3 million kilometers per hour.
Astronomers say the galaxy seems to be trying hard to break the fast-moving target, but the target is not running very well.
This discovery will help scientists develop new modeling techniques that capture the strong dynamic interplay between two galaxies.
Astronomers now intend to find the direction from which the LMC first went to the galaxy and that was exactly the time it happened. This will reveal the amount and distribution of dark matter in galaxies and LMCs with unprecedented detail.
Dr. Michael. Michael Peterson, lead author and Postdoctoral Research Associate, School of Physics and Astronomy, said:
“We were able to show that 300,000 light-years away, stars at surprisingly large distances, remember the formation of the galaxy before LMC arrived, and create the background against which we measured the disks of stars flying in space, by the gravitational force of LMC. Is stretched. “
“The discovery certainly breaks the magic that our galaxy is in some kind of equilibrium.
“Understanding this can give us an unparalleled view of the distribution of dark matter in both galaxies.”
Astronomers have discovered the fatty spin of the Milky Way’s ‘halo’
Michael S. Peterson et al, examining the motion of the galaxy due to the large Magellanic cloud inflate Nature astronomy (2020). DOI: 10.1038 / s41550-020-01254-3
Provided by the University of Edinburgh
Testimonial: Galaxy Encounter Aggressively Disrupts Galaxy, Study (2020, November 23) November 24, 2020 https://phys.org/news/2020-11-galaxy-encounter-violently-disturbed-milky.html
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