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The constellation Taurus may look very different in the future thanks to a “piece” of dark matter slowly tearing apart part of the bull’s head characteristic of the constellation. According to research published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics (via Space.com), the Hyades, a V-shaped star cluster that make up the head of the constellation Taurus, has changed shape during its 600 million and 700 million. year of life, and that the changes could be the result of dark matter.
The study, in particular, sought to better understand the “tails” of the cluster, two elongated groups of stars that are separated from the larger body of the overall cluster. One tail aims for the center of the Milky Way as the other moves away. Although the so-called tidal tails are a natural formation due to the gravitational interaction between groups of stars, they are most often seen with molten galaxies. However, scientists have also seen tidal tails in star clusters and can sometimes indicate the presence of invisible objects on telescopes.
“Stars [in tidal tails] can be seen as moving faster in a certain direction, and that could indicate that there is something attracting them, ”said Tereza Jerabkova, ESA researcher at Live Science.
So what does this have to do with Hyades and Taurus? When Jerabkova and the other researchers mapped the tails of the cluster, they noticed that the trailing tail appeared to “dissolve” in space, which led to the conclusion that the cluster is “disturbed by a mass. massive “material and, without this being known. nearby mass, one possible explanation is dark matter. Scientists are already theorizing that the so-called dark matter halos helped shape various galaxies and that the remaining “sub-halos” may still exist. What bothers the Hyades cluster and, in turn, the constellation Taurus, could in theory be one of these sub-halos.
While this probably isn’t good long-term news for the constellation Taurus, the casual stargazer on Earth is unlikely to notice a major change in the constellation anytime soon – the Hyades are around 150 light years from Earth. – – the idea that dark matter plays with the tails of the cluster is an important discovery according to Jerabkova, a discovery that shows data from the star mapping mission could just help reveal more about stars and planets , but by various structures and objects that remain hidden in the sky.
What do you think of the idea that dark matter subhalos could tear part of the constellation Taurus? Let us know in the comments.
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