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The "Sagittarius' Dwarf Tidal Stream"
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Da "NASA - Picture of the Day" del 29 Maggio 2005:"Recent 'Wide Field Images' and analyses indicate that our home galaxy is actually still in the process of devouring one of its closer satellite neighbors.
This unfortunate neighbor, the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy, is now seen to be part of a larger Sagittarius Tidal Stream, a loose filament of stars, gas, and possibly dark matter that entangles the Milky Way. Speculation also holds that the Sagittarius Dwarf was once pulled through the Milky Way disk very close to our Sun's current location. An important resulting realization is that galaxies contain a jumble of clumps and filaments of both dim and dark matter".
Che sia questo residuo di onda mareale - o forse si tratta di un corpo oscuro 'dimenticato'? - la causa delle strane ed apparentemente inspiegabili accelerazioni e decelerazioni del Voyager, ormai giunto agli estremi confini dell'area di influenza mareale del Sole?
O forse non è poi così facile riuscire a "mollare gli ormeggi solari"?...
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