OREANDA-NEWS  American and European astronomers have calculated the approximate mass of the Milky Way Galaxy, according to the website of the European Space Agency (ESA).

Scientists used data obtained from space telescopes Gaia (European Space Agency) and Hubble (NASA). In their calculations, they took into account the area of 129 thousand light years from Earth. In past studies, the mass of the Milky Way was estimated at 500 billion-3 trillion solar masses, but this time scientists have used another method to calculate the mass of dark matter, whose share in the mass of the galaxy is about 90%.

They concluded that the mass of the galaxy is 1.5 trillion times greater than the mass of the Sun (1.9885⋅1030 kg). Astronomers took into account the speed at which globular star clusters rotate around the center of the Milky Way. "The higher the mass of the galaxy, the faster the clusters move under the influence of gravity," explained Professor Win Evans of Cambridge University.

The Gaia telescope allowed US to obtain data on clusters in 65 thousand light years from the Earth, information about the further scientists received with the help of Hubble.

The European Space Agency noted that the mass of the Galaxy was a problematic issue due to dark matter. "The precise definition of the mass of the Milky Way gives us a clearer understanding of where our galaxy is in the cosmological context," the space Agency said.

Earlier, in 2016, scientists-astrophysicists created a super-accurate map of the Milky Way using data from the largest radio telescopes of the Earth, located in Australia and in Germany.

Yesterday it was reported that during the demonstration flight the capsule of the Crew Dragon docked with the International space station (ISS). This is the last of a series of tests that the capsule had to go through to get permission from NASA to transport people.