Study suggests Sagittarius A is fermionic dark matter core
A new study is shaking up what we thought we knew about our galaxy.
Instead of a giant black hole (Sagittarius A) sitting at the Milky Way's center, researchers now think it could actually be a super-dense core of dark matter.
Their model uses something called fermionic dark matter to explain the way our galaxy spins and how stars move near the middle.
Model could explain galaxy rotation
The team says their dark matter model could explain the way the galaxy spins and how stars move near the middle, could create a dark region in the center and a bright ring around it, as seen in an image taken by the Event Horizon Telescope in 2022.
As Dr. Carlos Arguelles put it, the model is the first dark matter model able to simultaneously explain the galaxy's large-scale rotation and the motion of stars near its center.
Lead author Valentina Crespi believes this idea could totally change how we think galaxies form. Maybe they're built around dark matter, not black holes after all.
If true, this could rewrite some big chapters in astronomy textbooks.