Galactic corona

The terms galactic corona and gaseous corona have been used in the first decade of the twenty-first century to describe a hot, ionised, gaseous component in the Galactic halo of the Milky Way. A similar body of very hot and tenuous gas in the halo of any spiral galaxy may also be described by these terms.

This coronal gas may be sustained by the galactic fountain, in which superbubbles of ionised gas from supernova remnants expand vertically through galactic chimneys into the halo. As the gas cools, it is pulled back into the galactic disc of the galaxy by gravitational forces.

See also

• Galaxy formation and evolution
• Galactic coordinate system
• Galactic bulge
• Disc galaxy
  • Spiral arm
• Galactic halo
• Galactic spheroid

External links

• THE GALACTIC CORONA, Jerry Bonnell, 1995
• Absorption Line Studies in the Halo, Philipp Richter, 2003
• Multi-phase High-Velocity Clouds toward HE 0226-4110 and PG 0953+414, Andrew J. Fox et al., 2005
• Galactic Corona or Local Group Intergalactic Medium?, Rik J. Williams, Smita Mathur, & Fabrizio Nicastro, 2005
• NGC 5746: Detection of Hot Halo Gets Theory Out of Hot Water