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Rotation Curves

  • Page ID
    1914
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    Evidence of dark matter has been confirmed through the study of rotation curves. To make a rotation curve one calculates the rotational velocity of e.g. stars along the length of a galaxy by measuring their Doppler shifts, and then plots this quantity versus their respective distance away from the center.

    alt

    Figure 1: The rotation curve for the galaxy NGC3198 from Begeman 1989

    Contributors and Attributions

    • Martin White (Physics, University of California, Berkeley)


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