Milky Way Has "beach ball" Dark Matter Halo

Our galaxy is shaped like a flat spiral right? Not if you're talking about dark matter. Astronomers announced today that the Milky Way's dark matter halo, which represents about 70% of the galaxy's mass, is actually shaped like a squashed beachball.

Dark matter is completely invisible, but it still obeys the law of gravity, so the existence of dark matter haloes, and their shape, can be inferred by monitoring the orbits of dwarf galaxies orbiting the much larger Milky Way.


?We expected [...]

Full story at http://spacefellowship.com/news/art17783/milky-way-has-beach-ball-dark-matter-halo.html