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Sunday, October 7, 2012

Clarification of the Milky Way's mass found more dark matter


A team of scientists from Japan initiate new, more accurate measurements of the distance from the solar system to the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way, which was found to be 26,100 light-years, and the rate of rotation of our galaxy near our solar system, which was found to be 240 km / s. Previous data on the speed of our galaxy is 220 km / s, which means that the mass of our galaxy - and especially the contribution, made ​​by dark matter - about 20% higher than previously thought.


A research team led by Associate Professor Marek Honma (Mareki Honma) of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, with a tool VERA (VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry) and other VLBI-telescopes (telescopes interferometers with very long base) to accurately measure the distance of about up to 50 sites and received data on their true motion. VERA tool designed to accurately measure the distance to the space objects using the triangulation method. The measurement of these distances will allow scientists to create a 3D-map of our galaxy, and from it to detect the movement and the mass distribution of objects that make up the Milky Way.

The disk of our galaxy revolves around the galactic center so that the rotational speed remains almost constant as close to the center of the galaxy, and at its outer edge. In general, the speed of rotation of the galaxy is balanced with its weight, so the measurement of the speed in this case is equivalent to measuring the mass of the galaxy.

Dark matter - a mysterious substance that fills our universe, which is believed to be responsible for the increase in speed of the external regions of galaxies compared with the rate obtained when calculating the total mass of the galaxies belonging to the object. Physicists believe that dark matter is composed of elementary particles, and is currently undergoing experiments to search for these particles.

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