At the edge of the Milky Way, astronomers have found numerous faint ribbons of stars.
Using a new algorithm and using data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission, scientists have revealed that the number of these ‘stellar streams’ could be four times greater than what is usually found.
According to Space.com, this new finding could help reveal how our galaxy evolved, as well as the distribution of its dark matter.
It is pertinent to mention that when the compact clusters travel through the Milky Way’s gravitational field, stars form arc wires called ‘stellar currents’. Arch wires shed stars that hang in long, trailing ribbons.
Oleg Gnedin, a theoretical astrophysicist at the University of Michigan, issued a statement explaining, “It’s like riding a bicycle with a bag of sand, except inside the bag there is a hole. Those grains of sand look like the stars left along their path.”
In particular, the patterns and movements of stellar streams record the gravitational forces they experience, making them an important tool for recording the mass of the Milky Way, which also helps measure the dark matter halo.
It is important to note that dark matter acts as an invisible ‘glue’ that holds galaxies together; however, despite years of research and findings, it has not yet been directly observed.
