Stars are scattered, disks are smoothed (IMAGE)

Iowa State University

Stars are scattered, disks are smoothed

Caption

This illustration shows how two sample star orbits are scattered from nearly circular orbits by the gravity of massive clumps within galaxies. Researchers have found that millions of orbital changes, like those shown here, smooth the overall light profile of galaxy disks. The blue star is scattered several times. The orange star is captured by the gravity of a clump and moves around it. A typical, relatively smooth spiral galaxy (UGC 12224) is shown in the background.

Credit

Illustration by Jian Wu/Iowa State University. Galaxy image from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

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