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Concept
Galactic halo
Summary
A galactic halo is an extended, roughly spherical component of a galaxy which extends beyond the main, visible component. Several distinct components of galaxies comprise the halo:
the stellar halo
the galactic corona (hot gas, i.e. a plasma)
the dark matter halo
The distinction between the halo and the main body of the galaxy is clearest in spiral galaxies, where the spherical shape of the halo contrasts with the flat disc. In an elliptical galaxy, there is no sharp transition between the other components of the galaxy and the halo.
A halo can be studied by observing its effect on the passage of light from distant bright objects like quasars that are in line of sight beyond the galaxy in question.
The stellar halo is a nearly spherical population of field stars and globular clusters. It surrounds most disk galaxies as well as some elliptical galaxies of type cD. A low amount (about one percent) of a galaxy's stellar mass resides in the stellar halo, meaning its luminosity is much lower than other components of the galaxy.
The Milky Way's stellar halo contains globular clusters, RR Lyrae stars with low metal content, and subdwarfs. Stars in our stellar halo tend to be old (most are greater than 12 billion years old) and metal-poor, but there are also halo star clusters with observed metal content similar to disk stars. The halo stars of the Milky Way have an observed radial velocity dispersion of about 200 km/s and a low average velocity of rotation of about 50 km/s. Star formation in the stellar halo of the Milky Way ceased long ago.
A galactic corona is a distribution of gas extending far away from the center of the galaxy. It can be detected by the distinct emission spectrum it gives off, showing the presence of HI gas (H one, 21 cm microwave line) and other features detectable by X-ray spectroscopy.
The dark matter halo is a theorized distribution of dark matter which extends throughout the galaxy extending far beyond its visible components. The mass of the dark matter halo is far greater than the mass of the other components of the galaxy.
Official source
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