What Satellite Galaxies Can Teach us About Dark Matter - Astronomy News with The Cosmic Companion
Satellite galaxies orbiting the Milky Way could help physicists test a new theory of dark matter
Images of Draco (left) and Fornax (right). Evidence for or against a new theory of dark matter could be found by examining this pair of bodies orbiting the Milky Way. Image credit: Draco image: Hubble Space Telescope / Fornax image: ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2.
Dark matter is thought to make up roughly 85 percent of all matter in the observable Universe, but little is known about this mysterious — something. Satellite galaxies orbiting around the main mass of the Milky Way galaxy could help researchers unravel the one of the great mysteries of modern science — dark matter.
A new theory called self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) could explain the behavior of two small companion galaxies called Draco and Fornax, researchers at the University of California, Riverside report. These bodies are among nine bright satellite galaxies accompanying the Milky Way.