The Field of Streams is a patch of sky where several

stellar streams This is a list of stellar streams. A stellar stream is an association of stars orbiting a galaxy that was once a globular cluster or dwarf galaxy that has now been torn apart and stretched out along its orbit by tidal forces. An exception in the ...

are visible and crisscross. It was discovered by

Vasily Belokurov Vasili, Vasily, Vasilii or Vasiliy (Russian: Василий) is a Russian masculine given name of Greek origin and corresponds to ''Basil''. It may refer to: *Vasili I of Moscow Grand Prince from 1389–1425 *Vasili II of Moscow Grand Prince fro ...

and

Daniel Zucker Daniel is a masculine given name and a surname of Hebrew origin. It means "God is my judge"Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 68. (cf. Gabriel—"God is my strength"), ...

's team in 2006 by analyzing the

Sloan Digital Sky Survey The Sloan Digital Sky Survey or SDSS is a major multi-spectral imaging and spectroscopic redshift survey using a dedicated 2.5-m wide-angle optical telescope at Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico, United States. The project began in 2000 a ...

II (SDSS-II) data. The team named the area ''Field of Streams'' because of so many crisscrossing trails of stars. The

Sagittarius Stream In astronomy, the Sagittarius Stream is a long, complex structure made of stars that wrap around the Milky Way galaxy in an orbit that nearly crosses the galactic poles. It consists of Tidal stripping, tidally stripped stars from the Sagittarius Dw ...

of the

Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy The Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy (Sgr dSph), also known as the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy (Sgr dE or Sag DEG), is an elliptical loop-shaped satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. It contains four globular clusters in ...

(SagDEG) dominates the ''Field''. It has a split trail within the area of the Field of Streams, because SagDEG has wrapped around the Milky Way Galaxy multiple times, which has resulted in overlapping trails. The forking of the trail has made it possible to infer the organization of dark matter in the inner halo of the Milky Way Galaxy, resulting in the determination that it is distributed in a round spherical manner, as opposed to the expected flattened spheroid. The shape of the streams also implies that the dark matter is very cold, due to the thin trails, and persisting existence. Also appearing in the Field is the Monoceros Ring, which was discovered before the Field.''SDSS''
"Map of stars in the outer regions of the Milky Way Galaxy"
''V. Belokurov, Sloan Digital Sky Survey'' (accessed 2009 March 29)

References

Sources

* ''The Astrophysical Journal'', Volume 658, Issue 1, pp. 337–344. "An Orphan in the ''Field of Streams''"; 2007 March; Belokurov, V. et al.; ; ; * ''The Astrophysical Journal'', Volume 642, Issue 2, pp. L137-L140. "The Field of Streams: Sagittarius and Its Siblings"; 2006 May; Belokurov, V. et al.; ; ; * ''

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ''Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society'' (MNRAS) is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering research in astronomy and astrophysics. It has been in continuous existence since 1827 and publishes letters and papers reporting orig ...

'', Volume 375 Issue 4, pp. 1171–1179. "Is Ursa Major II the progenitor of the Orphan Stream?"; M. Fellhauer et al.; ; * ''Science News'', "Galactic de Gustibus: Milky Way's snacks shed light on dark matter and galaxy growth", Ron Cowen, 2006 July 1 * ''Christian Science Monitor''
"Big galaxies, it seems, eat little ones"
Robert C. Cowen, 2006 May 18 (accessed 2009 March 29) * ''New Scientist''

Maggie McKee, 2006 May 9 (accessed 2009 March 29) Milky Way Stellar streams Sky regions Astronomical objects discovered in 2006 {{Spiral-galaxy-stub

See also

References

Sources