Posted on 03/09/2019 10:18:12 AM PST by ETL
Scientists have finally been able to accurately calculate the weight of the Milky Way, overcoming the difficult hurdle of measuring dark matter, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced Thursday.
After years of struggling to estimate the size of our galaxy, astronomers with NASA and the ESA used data from the Hubble Space Telescope and the ESAs Gaia mission to determine the Milky Way weighs about 1.5 trillion solar masses within a radius of 129,000 light years from the center.
Because dark matter makes up about 90 percent of the galaxy, estimates of the Milky Ways weight have differed widely in the past.
Previous measurements ranged from 500 billion to 3 trillion times the mass of the Sun.
"We just can't detect dark matter directly," Laura Watkins, of the European Southern Observatory in Germany who led the teams analysis, said in a statement.
"That's what leads to the present uncertainty in the Milky Way's mass you can't measure accurately what you can't see."
Because dark matter is so difficult to calculate, Watkins and her team measured the velocities of dense star clusters, called globular clusters, that orbit the galaxys spiral disc.
They used data from Gaia, the ESAs space observatory, to measure globular clusters as far as 65,000 light-years away from Earth and data from the Hubble Space Telescope a project shared by NASA and the ESA to measure globular clusters as far as 130,000 light-years away from Earth.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
And definitely do not build any more military bases on Guam. That could be disastrous for the galaxy.
Good Lord? What if my extra mass gets transferred to Alpha Centauri? Will that upset the natural balance in the galaxy?
Ditto!
Particularly since my galactic weight calculations may not be "accurate" but they are precise... NASA has clearly missed the galactic weight by 126 lbs and 11 ounces... I understand that NASA actually used the weight stated in the quran...
10 to the 42nd power. Once again proving that the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy is correct.
Closer to home, the planet is going to be destroyed by plastics in the ocean, if SUV’s don’t destroy it first. And in the long run the galaxy may be doomed by the impending collision with the Andromeda Galaxy. Unless Cetus devours Andromeda before that happens.
You could also sink the Galaxy in a vat of water and check it’s displacement.
I wish theyd spend this much money and effort to cure liberalism.
It could revolutionize the world.
NASA accurately calculates Milky Way’s weight
Milky Way Shamed into Joining Jenny Craig!
Becomes New SpokesGalaxy!
You're right. ESA got it right; Fox screwed it up. Never let a reporter talk about science.
The WEIGHT of something depends on how close it is to something ELSE (like a planet or star). The MASS of something is a measure of how much material is in it, and doesn't change because of location.
Think of it as one less thing praying on your mind constantly like an annoying song. On to the next question that the voice in my head keeps repeating.
I prefer the taste of Milky Way Midnight Dark
If you want on or off the Electric Universe/Plasma Ping List, Freepmail me.
Thanks Swordmaker. This will help fill in that last puzzle in physics, an accurate measurement of the speed of dark.
And for what purpose?
My scale doesn't display solar masses. So how does this convert to pounds?
An electrically charged plasma would interact in known way with light coming from stars in the Milky Way. Those interactions are not observed, so no plasma.
What IS observed is that galaxies dont rotate the way that should based on Newtonian gravity or General Relativity. Either our gravitational theories are wrong or there is some unaccounted for mass screwing up the calculations. Both of these possibilities have been investigated (Google MOND - modified Newtonian dynamics of you want to find out more), and reality matches better with the unaccounted for mass, I.e. dark matter.
Im not really sure why massive particles that only interact gravitationally is such a problematic idea anyway. There are only four possible ways particles can interactelectromagnetic, strong, weak, and gravity. We already have detected particles that dont interact via the strong and electromagnetic forces, namely neutrinos, which interact only via the weak force and gravity. Is it really such a stretch to think there might be neutrino-like particles that dont interact via the weak force?
Weight is like force:
F=ma - W=ma, where a is the acceleration due to gravity.
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