Way ripped Sagittarius apart, causing the dwarf galaxy to send large amounts of its stars and dark matter spinning off into the new galactic arms. Around 80 to 90 per cent of its dark matter was stripped off, according to lead author Chris Purcell, an astrophysicist at the University of Pittsburgh.
Date: Sep 15, 2011
Category: Sci/Tech
Source: Google
Milky Way Owes Its Shape to Crashes With Dwarf Galaxy
"Sagittarius was among the largest of the Milky Way's dwarf satellites before it began to be torn apart by galactic tides, but objects on that scale are still relatively small details in the eyes of many galaxy-formation theorists," said study lead author Chris Purcell, an astrophysicist at t