Most galaxies are held together because of an unknown mass that is referred to in astronomy as Dark Matter (DM).
In addition to understanding its role in galaxy rotation, two longstanding mysteries in astronomy may be solved by DM, say researchers from the University of Florida.
The first is the ionisation of the central molecular zone (CMZ) which is located at the centre of the Milky Way and which contains around 60 million solar masses in the form of interstellar gas contained in a space 1,600 to 2,000 light years across.
This region is more ionised than analysts would expect, and the uniformity of this is also a mystery.
The second unexplained phenomenon is the existence of diffuse gamma rays with a cumulative energy of around 515 keV that are found in the constellation of Sagittarius.
A team from the University of Florida argued that lightweight DM could resolve both problems and their model can explain the ionisation profile, as well as the gamma rays.
