Astronomers Discover All Galaxies Rotate Once Every Billion Years

This Hubble image reveals the gigantic Pinwheel galaxy, one of the best known examples of 'grand design spirals,' and its supergiant star-forming regions in unprecedented detail. The image is the largest and most detailed photo of a spiral galaxy ever released from Hubble. (Image: via ESA / NASA)

Astronomers have discovered that all galaxies rotate once every billion years, no matter how big they are. The Earth spinning around on its axis once gives us the length of a day, and a complete orbit of the Earth around the Sun gives us a year.

Professor Meurer said that by using simple math, you can show all galaxies of the same size have the same average interior density.

Professor Meurer and his team also found evidence of older stars existing out to the edge of galaxies.

Professor Meurer said that the next generation of radio telescopes, like the soon-to-be-built Square Kilometre Array (SKA), will generate enormous amounts of data, and knowing where the edge of a galaxy lies will reduce the processing power needed to search through the data.

Provided by: International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research [Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.]

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