You may want to know how the Milky Way gets warped, which the cusing might be from the dark matter.
Astronomers have discovered a football-shaped halo of dark matter surrounding the Milky Way, which may explain its twisted nature. The halo is tilted and envelops our galaxy, giving it a flared edge and warped shape. The dark matter halo could be responsible for these characteristics. Understanding the impact of dark matter on galaxies and the evolution of the Milky Way is aided by this discovery.
Dark matter, accounting for 85% of the universe’s matter, is invisible and inferred through gravitational interactions and its influence on visible matter. It acts as the gravitational glue that holds galaxies together.
The Milky Way’s halo of dark matter extends beyond the halo of stars surrounding its main disk and central nucleus. Last year, researchers found that the stellar halo of the Milky Way has a tilted, football-like shape. They now believe that the stars’ orbit aligns with this tilted dark matter halo, providing an explanation for the galaxy’s flared edge and warped shape.
The tilted dark halo is a common occurrence in simulations, and its effect on the Milky Way had not been explored before. The finding also supports the idea that the Milky Way grew through collisions with other galaxies.
The shape of the dark matter disk around the Milky Way could provide insights into the nature of dark matter and its properties. It could also help astronomers study free-floating “blobs” of dark matter between galaxies.
“The fact that the galaxy is not spherical in our data implies that there is some limit to which dark matter can interact with itself,” Han concluded.