2023-09-27 20:13:30
View of the Milky Way from the Negev desert, Israel, August 12, 2021. MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP
The mass of the Milky Way would be 4 to 5 times smaller than expected, according to the latest measurements taken by the Gaia space telescope, launched in 2013 by the European Space Agency.
Our galaxy, the Milky Way, would be four to five times lighter than previously thought, according to new measurements carried out by French researchers. This gigantic spiral, containing nearly 150 billion stars, would weigh “only” 206 billion times the mass of our Sun. “It’s really much lighter than we thought, and by such an enormous factor that it was really unsuspected,” summarizes François Hammer, astrophysicist at the Paris Observatory, and one of the authors of the publication published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.
Measuring the mass of the Milky Way is a considerable challenge for several reasons. The first is that we ourselves are inside this large disk of matter, within which the stars concentrate to form large spiral arms. Furthermore, observation is made complicated by the presence of large gas clouds which obscure the central regions. But the most complex problem is…
This article is reserved for subscribers. You have 74% left to discover.
Do you want to read more?
Unlock all items immediately.
Already subscribed? Log in
#galaxy #lighter #expected