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Shedding light on dark matter: Probing the cusp/core problem with the Milky Way's tidal st — NSF Award to Regents of the Universit

Dark matter is invisible, but its presence is detected via its gravitational effect on stars and galaxies. One powerful way to study dark matter is by looking at “tidal streams” that originate from globular clusters. These are long, thin trails of stars that are pulled away from dense clusters of old stars as they orbi

Award titleShedding light on dark matter: Probing the cusp/core problem with the Milky Way's tidal st
Award ID2510879
AwardeeRegents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
CityANN ARBOR
StateMI
Amount obligated$552,880
Principal investigatorMonica Valluri
ProgramGALACTIC ASTRONOMY PROGRAM
Start date09/01/2025
AbstractDark matter is invisible, but its presence is detected via its gravitational effect on stars and galaxies. One powerful way to study dark matter is by looking at “tidal streams” that originate from globular clusters. These are long, thin trails of stars that are pulled away from dense clusters of old stars as they orbit the Milky Way. Tidal streams of stars can have a variety of shapes and thicknesses, and they can also have distortions in their shapes, such as “gaps”, “spurs”, or “cocoons”. The
SourceNSF Awards

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