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:
“Nothing has shown more fully the prodigious ignorance of human ideas and their littleness, than the discovery of [Sir William] Herschell, that what used to be called the Milky Way is a portion of perhaps an infinite multitude of worlds!”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
“The Milky Way perhaps
Was woman’s way of life.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“and as you read
the sea is turning its dark pages,
turning
its dark pages.”
—Denise Levertov (b. 1923)
“Nothing is a matter of life and death except life and death.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)
“Fame now wears the halo that once crowned holiness.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)