4 ms·
> and its mass is estimated to be 650 billion solar masses One could also say this new galaxy's mass is estimated to be 0.565 Milky Way masses, but for some re
by tromp 3y ago
> and its mass is estimated to be 650 billion solar masses
One could also say this new galaxy's mass is estimated to be 0.565 Milky Way masses, but for some reason that unit of mass seems not to have caught on...
- otikik 3y agoAs long as we don’t measure length in football fields I won’t get triggered.
- pavlov 3y agoProposal to Rename the Milky Way Galaxy to “the Football Field”
- anotheraccount9 3y agoHow would you go about doing this - just out of curiosity.
- ursuscamp 3y agoHow many kiloyards in width is this new galaxy?
- hexo 3y agoMe neither, as I prefer washing machines over football fields.
- sebzim4500 3y agoIsn't there a lot of uncertainty about the mass of the milky way? I think if you are going to use something as a unit you really need an accurate figure.
- jwuphysics 3y agoThere is indeed lots of uncertainty, and all Milky Way mass estimates are model dependent. Also, the ~10^12 solar mass figure referred to above is an estimate of the total galaxy + dark matter halo mass. Stellar or baryonic mass estimates are closer to ~6 x 10^10 solar masses. I'm using "~" to mean uncertainty to within a factor of 2 or so.
- auxbuss 3y agoStacy McGough wrote about this topic recently wrt the third Gaia data release: https://tritonstation.com/2023/09/19/recent-developments-concerning-the-gravitational-potential-of-the-milky-way-i/ https://tritonstation.com/2023/09/19/recent-developments-con...