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Science 27 April 2001:
Vol. 292. no. 5517, p. 597
DOI: 10.1126/science.292.5517.597b
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This Week in Science

The halo of the Milky Way galaxy is thought to be composed mostly of dark matter, which is detected by its gravitational effects on luminous galactic components, but otherwise the nature of this dark matter is unknown. Recent work has suggested that cool white dwarfs--compact, extremely dense stars that no longer produce energy by nuclear fusion and that are now cooling and fading from view--may be one component of the halo. Oppenheimer et al. (p. 698; see the 23 March news story by Sincell) surveyed a region near the South Galactic Cap and have now observed a population of extremely faint old white dwarfs with large space velocities that are consistent with these subluminous stars being part of the galaxy's halo. Furthermore, this population accounts for about 2% of the halo's "dark matter."




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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)