Astronomers have figured out the cause of the curvature of the Milky Way

The disk structure of the Milky Way is not symmetrical, but deformed. The warped edges of the galaxy are constantly

move along its outer edge.

The way the audience makes a wave in the stadium -very similar to the concept. curvature of the Milky Way. Each person gets up and then sits down at the right time and in the right order to create a wave that moves through the stadium. This is exactly what the stars in our galaxy do. Only in this case, since the wave revolves around the disk of the galaxy, it also revolves around its center. In terms of the sports fans analogy, it is as if the stadium itself is rotating too.

Xinlong Cheng, PhD student in astronomy, University of Virginia

What led to this deformation,has always been the subject of controversy. Some researchers speculate that this phenomenon is a result of the instability of the galaxy itself. Other scientists are confident that this is the remnant of a collision with another galaxy in the distant past.

Recent research may finally putend of this debate. It used data from the Gaia Space Observatory, a satellite launched in 2013 by the European Space Agency (ESA), and information from APOGEE, an infrared spectrograph designed to study the chemical composition and motion of stars. Astronomers now have instruments to observe the movement of stars in the Milky Way with an unprecedented level of accuracy.

Using this data, Cheng and colleaguesdeveloped a model that characterizes the parameters of the galactic warp, the place of its origin in the outer disk, speed of movement and shape. The model helped them determine that the curvature that travels through the solar system at speed is not the result of the movement of the inner mass of the Milky Way. Instead, it is a relic of the gravitational pull of the galactic disk caused by the nearby passage of a satellite galaxy. Possibly a dwarf spheroidal Sagittarius galaxy, about 3 billion years ago.

Despite the fact that billions of years have passed since that event, the consequences of this “meeting” are still observed.

The data gathered by scientists using new tools available to astronomers will be the beginning of a new wave of discoveries about the universe and how it came to be.

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Warp (English warp, "deformation") - the name of the principle of movement through hyperspace in a number of fantastic works.