Dipole Repeller void repels the Milky Way

[Brian G Turner]

A new study claims a void in space is actually exerting a repelling force on the Milky Way:

The Milky Way is being pushed through space by a void called the Dipole Repeller

The Earth spins at 1,600 km/h while orbiting the Sun at 100,000 km/h; the Sun orbits the Milky Way at 850,000 km/h; and the Milky Way moves in time with the expanding Universe at a staggering 630 km per second. But what is propelling the Milky Way's race through space?

Scientists had assumed a dense region of the Universe called the Great Attractor, made of clusters of galaxies 150 million light-years from the Milky Way, was pulling the galaxy through space. Astronomers later suggested an area of more than two dozen rich clusters, called the Shapley Concentration 600 million light-years beyond the Great Attractor, was to blame.

Now, researchers led by professor Yehuda Hoffman at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem report that our galaxy is not just being pulled, it's also being pushed. In a study in the journal Nature Astronomy, the team describes a previously unknown region in our extragalactic neighbourhood, largely devoid of galaxies, which exerts a repelling force on the Milky Way as well as Andromeda.

However, if this is tied to the same problem that galaxies don't appear to have enough mass - yet we later account for it - then perhaps the whole idea of a Dipole Repeller might become unnecesary.