Milky Way Dark Matter Halo
The visible disk of the Milky Way Galaxy is embedded in a much larger, roughly spherical halo of dark matter. The dark matter density drops off with distance from the galactic center. It is now believed that about 95% of the Galaxy is composed of dark matter, a type of matter that does not seem to interact with the rest of the Galaxy's matter and energy in any way except through gravity. The luminous matter makes up approximately 9 x 1010 solar masses. The dark matter halo is likely to include around 6 x 1011 to 3 x 1012 solar masses of dark matter.
Read more about this topic: Dark Matter Halo
Famous quotes containing the words milky way, milky, dark, matter and/or halo:
“The Milky Way perhaps
Was woman’s way of life.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“The eye-balls were seared with a milky mucus;
The madness of a dying soul
Was written on her face—
But the multitude saw why she wore the bandage.””
—Edgar Lee Masters (1869–1950)
“It’s the old captain’s dark fate
Who failed to find or force a strait
In its two-thousand-mile coast;
And his crew left him where he failed,
And nothing came of all he sailed.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“It is a matter of perfect indifference where a thing originated; the only question is: “Is it true in and for itself?””
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“Fame now wears the halo that once crowned holiness.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)