September 30, 2003
Every year, the Earth returns to the same point in its orbit where it was when you were born.
The Sagittarius Dwarf Tidal Stream
Birthday · September 30, 2003
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APOD published September 30, 2003. Credit: David Martinez-Delgado (MPIA) & Gabriel Perez (IAC). A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Is our Milky Way Galaxy out to lunch? Recent wide field images and analyses now indicate that our home galaxy is actually still in the process of devouring its closest satellite neighbor. 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. An artist's depiction of the stream is shown above. 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.
Image credit: David Martinez-Delgado (MPIA) & Gabriel Perez (IAC)