The first sighting of a halo of hydrogen wafting around the Milky Way has been revealed today.
It was thought our galaxy had this kind of halo of diffuse gas, based on what we knew about other galaxies, but it had never been directly observed until now.
Spiral galaxies like the Milky Way are made up of a central bulge surrounded by a disk and spiral arms, but these only make up a tiny part of its mass. It is thought the bulk of the ‘missing mass’ is made up of dark matter, which does not interact with light so cannot be seen.
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Abigail Beall 