A dwarf galaxy that is too dim to see but is suspected to orbit our own Milky Way may soon be revealed using a new mathematical technique that analyzes the ripples of gas in spiral galaxies.
The new method was developed by Sukanya Chakrabarti, a post-doctoral fellow and theoretical astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley. She thinks it can be used to detect the hypothetical so-called "Galaxy X" near the Milky Way. The model may also have applications for detecting mysterious and as-yet inexplicable dark matter, which is thought to make up the bulk of the universe.
Chakrabarti predicted the mass of Galaxy X to be one-hundredth that of the Milky Way itself. The galaxy currently sits across the Milky Way somewhere in the constellations of Norma or Circinus, just west of the galactic center in Sagittarius when viewed from Earth, based on the calculations and compared her prediction of Galaxy X with previous arguments for a Planet X beyond the orbit of Neptune.
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