Our galaxy is floating on a dark matter pancake: Study
Scientists have found that the Milky Way isn't just floating in space; it's actually nestled inside a massive, flat sheet of dark matter.
This discovery comes from computer simulations that mapped out the invisible stuff around our galaxy and its neighbor Andromeda.
Dark matter pancake stretches across tens of millions of light-years
Turns out, this dark matter "pancake" stretches across tens of millions of light-years, with huge empty spaces above and below.
Because of how gravity works in this setup, nearby galaxies are drifting away from us instead of getting closer.
This finding could help scientists better predict how galaxies will move
These big empty voids help explain why galaxies move the way they do locally.
As researcher Amina Helmi put it, "I am excited to see that, based purely on the motions of galaxies, we can determine a mass distribution that corresponds to the positions of galaxies within and just outside the Local Group."
Basically, this finding could help scientists better predict how galaxies will move and evolve in the future.