Team creates Milky Way structure simulations

Tuesday, November 18, 2014 - 07:50 in Astronomy & Space

If you took a photograph of the Milky Way galaxy today from a distance, the photo would show a spiral galaxy with a bright, central bar (sometimes called a bulge) of dense star populations. The Sun—very difficult to see in your photo—would be located outside this bar near one of the spiral arms composed of stars and interstellar dust. Beyond the visible galaxy would be a dark matter halo—invisible to your camera but important nonetheless because it keeps everything together by dragging down the rotational velocity of the bar and spiral arms.

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