Extending the Rotational Velocity Profile of the Milky Way Galaxy to Points Beyond 8 Kiloparsecs

• David G. Schultz ^[1] ; Sarah Phan ^[1] ; Malcolm Allen ^[1]
  1. [1] Maine East High School, Park Ridge, IL
• Localización: The Physics Teacher, ISSN 0031-921X, Vol. 62, Nº. 6, 2024, págs. 455-458
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Providing students with a hands-on opportunity to learn about one of the biggest physics mysteries in our time is a great way to spark engagement. In a two-year project, our high school astronomy club built a radio telescope and used it to measure Doppler-shifted radio signals from within the plane of the Milky Way galaxy. We analyzed this data to reaffirm that the orbital velocity of matter around the galactic center remains relatively constant as one travels radially outward. This replicates one of the early pieces of evidence that led astronomers to hypothesize the existence of dark matter