Abstract
Galactic halos are of great importance for our understanding of both the dark matter nature and primordial non-Gaussianity in the perturbation spectrum, a powerful discriminant of the physical mechanisms that generated the cosmological fluctuations observed today. In this paper we analyze <jats:italic>Planck</jats:italic> data towards the galaxy M 104 (Sombrero) and find an asymmetry in the microwave temperature which extends up to about 1° from the galactic center. This frequency-independent asymmetry is consistent with that induced by the Doppler effect due to the galactic rotation and we find a probability of less than about 0.2% that it is due to a random fluctuation of the microwave background. In addition, <jats:italic>Planck</jats:italic> data indicate the relatively complex dynamics of the M 104 galactic halo, and this appears to be in agreement with previous studies. In view of our previous analysis of the dark halos of nearby galaxies, this finding confirms the efficiency of the method used in revealing and mapping the dark halos around relatively nearby edge-on galaxies.
De Paolis, F