Milky Way Galaxy is Warped and Vibrating like a Drum

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have presented a hypothesis to explain the warping of a thin disk of hydrogen gas that extends across the Milky Way galaxy. When the Milky Way is viewed from the side, the hydrogen fas appears to undulate above and below the galactic plane -- as if the gas was a ripple moving through the galaxy. Long dismissed hypothesis had suggested that the sister galaxies of the Milky Way -- the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds -- could be creating the warping effect due to their gravitational influence. That was dismissed however, as the Magellanic Clouds are not massive enough. Together, they make up just 2% of the hydrogen disk of the Milky Way. The new hypothesis revives the old with a twist -- dark matter. The results of computer simulations suggest that if the Magellanic Clouds were moving through a dense halo of dark matter, then their gravitational influence would be magnified to the point where they would be responsible for the warping of the Milky Way. Interestingly enough, if this is the case, then the warping is not static, but is really a slow ripple that is undulating through our galaxy -- described by Professor Leo Blitz as looking "like the Milky Way is flapping in the breeze."

How's that for cool?