Measure the rotation speed of the galaxy

American astronomers used the Hubble space telescope to see for the first time the speed of rotation of a galaxy.

Based on the clockwise movement of stars, the central part of the neighboring galaxy called the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) completes a rotation every 250 million years, according to Space.com's report. Space Telescope Science Institute.

Hubble allows astronomers to measure galaxy's rotation speed - (Photo: NASA / ESA)

Scientist Roeland van der Marel of the institute and Nitya Kallivayalil of the University of Virginia (USA) used Hubble to measure the average movement speed of hundreds of different stars of the LMC galaxy , 170,000 years from us. the light.

Disk galaxies like the LMC and the Milky Way often rotate like a troop lamp.

Previously, astronomers had calculated the rotation speed of galaxies by observing small changes in the spectrum of stars in galaxies.

However, until now Hubble is the only telescope that can specifically observe the motion of a galaxy, thanks to its ability to capture images with extremely sharp resolution, image stabilization and Long time operating in space.