Flat galaxy rotation curves (dark matter halos)
Curvas de rotación planas y materia oscura en galaxias
- Date
- 1970-1980 · confidence high
- Place
- Carnegie Institution (DTM), Washington D.C., United States
- Credited to
- Vera Rubin, Kent Ford
- People
- 👤 Kent Ford1931–2023👤 Vera Rubin1928–2016
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Rubin and Ford showed that the outer stars of Andromeda and other spirals rotate as fast as the inner ones, which requires halos of invisible matter. It turned dark matter into a central problem.
The observations were made at Kitt Peak and Lowell.
What it led to
- Dark matter halos
- Cosmological simulations
- Direct detection experiments
Built on
Made possible
- Spectrograph with image intensifier