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Astronomers Measure the Mass of the Milky Way by Calculating How Hard it is to Escape

Several techniques have been developed to measure the mass of the Milky Way, providing a range of estimates. In a new paper, a team of researchers used data from ESA's Gaia spacecraft to measure the escape velocity of the Milky Way at different distances from the galactic center and calculated its total mass, including the dark matter halo. Their measurement of 640 billion solar masses aligns with other estimates but is on the lower end.

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