Research conducted by scientists at Rochester Institute of Technology rules out a challenge to the accepted standard model of the universe and theory of how galaxies form by shedding new light on a problematic structure.
Research conducted by scientists at Rochester Institute of Technology rules out a challenge to the accepted standard model of the universe and theory of how galaxies form by shedding new light on a problematic structure.
The vast polar structure—a plane of satellite galaxies at the poles of the Milky Way—is at the center of a tug-of-war between scientists who disagree about the existence of mysterious dark matter, the invisible substance that, according to some scientists, comprises 85 percent of the mass of the universe.
A paper accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices for the Royal Astronomical Society bolsters the standard cosmological model, or the Cold Dark Matter paradigm, by showing that the vast polar structure formed well after the Milky Way and is an unstable structure.
The study, “Is the Vast Polar Structure of Dwarf Galaxies a Serious Problem for CDM?”— available online at http://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stx286 — was co-authored by Andrew Lipnicky, a Ph.D. candidate in RIT’s astrophysical sciences and technology program, and Sukanya Chakrabarti, assistant professor in RIT’s School of Physics and Astronomy, whose grant from the National Science Foundation supported the research.
Read more at Rochester Institute of Technology
Photo credit: Roanish from Australia via Wikimedia Commons
