Galaxy Bima Sakti

Milky Way, where Earth is, in fact probably only half the magnitude of the expected date, the scientists said.

Stars at the end of the Milky Way, between 260,000 and 490,000 light years from the galactic center, surprisingly moving slowly in its orbit, according to evidence found in research. Galaxy mass and velocity of the star intertwined, so that the results could have huge implications.

"Because the speed is very low, the mass of our galaxy is probably much lower than we expected," said lead researcher Alis Deason from the University of California, Santa Cruz, told reporters on Wednesday (January 9) in a meeting of the American Astronomical Society that all 221 in Long Beach, California.

"If you conclude the nature of the stars that we consider reasonable, then we find the mass of the Milky Way may be of only half of that at this time we believe in," said Deason, who conducted the study while at the University of Cambridge, UK.

The Milky Way consists of three main parts: the central bulge, the disc is relatively flat and the circle surrounding it.

Deason and his team to look beyond the Milky Way, which far exceeds the 100,000 light years wide disc galaxies. They measured the radial velocity of the star's light cycle sampled using two different instruments: the European Southern Observatory telescope in Chile 8.2 meter and 4.2 meter William Herschel Observatory in Spain.

They found that the dispersion, or spread, of the speed of light circle of stars is about half that seen for stars closer to the galactic center.

"We were quite surprised to find this," said Deason.

Using this information, the team calculated that the total mass of the Milky Way from extreme distances may be between 500 billion and 1 trillion times that of the sun - much lower than current estimates, said Deason.

However, this latest study is not necessarily the end of the mass of the Milky Way conclusions, which are not well understood.

"The problem is, we really are in unknown territory," said Deason. "We assume the properties of the stars are similar to those in the inner galaxy., And this is something that really needs to be verified, what we assume, in terms of their density profiles as well as what its orbit."

Future research with this information could help astronomers map the distribution of mass around the Milky Way, said Deason, potentially muluruhkan light on the mysterious dark matter that is expected to form more than 80 percent of all matter in the universe.

"I think we'll be able to use such measures not only to explain what it is the total mass, but also if the distribution of dark matter is as we expected," he said. "Currently, we do not know."