Measuring a property of the Solar System ends up solving a problemwith dwarf galaxies!

Dwarf galaxy conundrum untangled • The Register
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07...rgy_explained/

An ANU scientist has produced a model for electron energies in distant gas clouds, based on measurements taken within the solar system – and along the way may have resolved a long-standing controversy in astrophyics.

For many years, an inconsistency listed under “remaining to be explained” has existed in astrophysics: our measurements of the temperature of distant gas clouds didn’t quite gel with measurements of the element abundances in the same objects.

David Nichols, a PhD candidate at ANU’s Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, told The Register the problem arises because of a long-standing assumption that electrons in the gas clouds would, over eons, had plenty of time to settle into a state of maximum entropy.

Nichols explained to The Register that this led to the assumption that “the distribution of low, medium and high energy electrons has reached a stable state and can be described by a temperature.