The Milky Way May Be Missing a Trillion Suns' Worth of Mass

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October 12, 2023

This week, we're thinking about weight loss. Not on a personal level, mind you, but rather across the entire Milky Way. Our lead story details a curious study that suggests our galaxy may be much lighter than previously believed. Based on an analysis of data from the European Space Agency's star-surveying Gaia mission, the study finds that stars toward our galaxy's outskirts are moving much slower than expected, which hints that our Milky Way may be underweight by as much as a trillion solar masses. There is also the possibility that the result is instead due to flaws in the analysis or in Gaia's data, but if confirmed it could mean there's much less dark matter drifting around our galaxy than most anyone thought. Elsewhere this week, we have stories on NASA's unveiling of fresh samples from an asteroid, how solar storms can hinder bird migrations, the weirdness of quantum physics, a coolant leak on the International Space Station, and much more. Enjoy!

Lee Billings, Senior Editor, Space & Physics @LeeBillings

Astronomy The Milky Way May Be Missing a Trillion Suns' Worth of Mass Slow-moving stars at the Milky Way's outskirts suggest our galaxy may be far lighter than previously believed, with profound implications for dark matter By Adam Mann

Planetary Science NASA Reveals Sneak Peek of Historic Asteroid Sample OSIRIS-REx's treasure trove from asteroid Bennu includes material rich in water and carbon By Mike Wall,SPACE.com

Animals Solar Storms Can Hinder Bird Migration New research suggests that solar storms interfere with the magnetic compass that birds use for long-distance travel By Meghan Bartels

Astronomy The Sky Is Full of Stars--and Exoplanets, Too Of the thousands of stars visible to the eye, only a few hundred are known to have planets. But that number may be far higher in reality By Phil Plait

Quantum Physics Quantum Physics Isn't as Weird as You Think. It's Weirder Quantum physics' oddities seem less surprising if you stop thinking of atoms as tennis balls, and instead more like waves pushing through water By Jasper van Wezel,Lotte Mertens,Jans Henke

Cosmology Many-Mirrored Galaxies Deepen Dark Matter Mystery A surprisingly complex galaxy cluster suggests that in the search for dark matter, nothing is as simple as it seems By Sharmila Kuthunur

Astronomy Euclid Space Telescope Rescued from Mission-Threatening Glitch The European Space Agency says a software patch restored stability to its cosmos-mapping Euclid spacecraft — but slower operations could extend the mission By Davide Castelvecchi,Nature magazine

Space Exploration International Space Station Suffers Leak, But Crew Remains Safe For the third time in a year, coolant is leaking from a Russian module aboard the International Space Station By Elizabeth Howell,SPACE.com

Astrophysics Can Lucky Planets Get a Second Chance at Life? Worlds around red giant stars—and others that don't orbit any star at all—hint at an unexpected diversity of possibilities for planets and life in the universe By Conor Feehly

Politics Broken U.S.-China Science Cooperation Needs Repair, Not Persecution Science plays an enormous unseen role in keeping international avenues of contact open, even when political doors slam shut. We need to keep those channels open with China By KC Cole

Ethics Nobel Prize Debate Misses the Mark on the Real Culprits Ignoring Scientific Merit The furor over a Nobel Prize winner's derailed career lets scientists off the hook for their own responsibilities to fix a broken academic reward system By C. Brandon Ogbunu

QUOTE OF THE DAY "It would be revolutionary." Stacy McGaugh, an astronomer at Case Western Reserve University, on the possibility of an unexpectedly lightweight Milky Way.

FROM THE ARCHIVE New Maps of Milky Way Are Biggest and Best Yet The latest data release from the European Space Agency's Gaia mission is sparking a frenzy of exciting new astrophysics research By Sasha Warren | June 2022

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