The Milky Way wobbles like a floppy hat
12 January 2006
by Carina
Lee
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Magellanic Clouds, the most prominent satellite of the Milky Way's galaxies, seem to be producing a mysterious warped galactic disk while coming into contact with the Milky Way's dark matter. Scientists have been studying this spectacle and have discovered that this warped galactic disk of hydrogen gas permeating the galaxy, acts like a vibrating drum consisting of three modes or tones. The current warp in the disk uses the three vibration tones. Because of this, one half of the disk is left rising up above the gas. The other half dips below the disk before rising up. Most warps are often thought to behave statically, however scientists believe that because of the stimulation in this case, it is dynamic. Professors in astronomy at the University of Massachusetts and the University of California, Martin D. Weinberg and Leo Blitz respectively, teamed up to devise a computer model in hopes of both investigating the galaxy's dark matter, observing the cloud's motions, and explaining the dynamic behaviour of the disk. Blitz explains, "The model not only produces this warp in the Milky Way, but during the rotation cycle of the Magellanic Clouds around the galaxy, it looks like the Milky Way is flapping in the breeze." Scientists and theorists are still unclear about the composition of this dark matter in the Milky Way. |
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Related Links
Original press release from UC Berkeley
Nature
& Science News
ClearlyExplained.com