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Dynamics of galactic disks

Gravity keeps stars on their orbits around the centre of the MW. Given this, we should be able to predict the motions you expect. Especially in the outer parts of the MW disk, observations do not follow this expectation at all. This is also true in other spiral disks. I'll describe the expectations first, then move on to the observations, which will result in a rather startling conclusion.



Subsections

Tom Theuns 2003-04-28