Astonishing Revelation: Astronomers Unravel the Mystery of Dark Matter in Galaxies
The introduction of imaginary numbers during our school days left many of us perplexed. As if regular math wasn’t challenging enough, we were suddenly confronted with the concept of something truly incomprehensible.
However, astronomers, known for their knack for tackling complex problems, grapple with this concept on a regular basis. Their relentless journey to unveil the secrets of the cosmos often leads them to one enigmatic substance: dark matter. This theoretical form of matter is essentially unobservable, but its significance should not be underestimated.
According to scientific models, dark matter constitutes a staggering 26% of the universe, more than five times the amount of ordinary matter that we can see. Since the dawn of time, this mysterious substance has influenced the structure of the universe and the formation of galaxies.
Intriguingly, astronomers have discovered entire galaxies predominantly composed of dark matter. In 2016, they stumbled upon the Dragonfly 44 Ultra Diffuse Galaxy (UDG). This galaxy, with a mass comparable to our Milky Way, lacks the typical brightness of stars and galactic structure. Further investigations revealed that most of its mass comes from dark matter.
Throughout history, scientists have encountered dark galaxies when they observed gas clouds inexplicably exerting gravitational force on other celestial structures. Although confirming the existence of a dark galaxy presents challenges, several candidates meet the criteria.
Moreover, there are galaxies that, while not completely dark, come close to that definition due to their limited luminosity. These “near-dark galaxies” are rare and often contain a significant amount of dark matter. Scientists may have just identified the largest near-dark galaxy to date.
The Nube galaxy, estimated to be 10 billion years old, was recently discovered through an analysis of data from the IAC Stripe 82 Legacy Project. This project focuses on studying a specific region of the sky imaged by the SDSS Telescope. With a half-mass radius three times larger than a typical UDG, Nube is an impressive find.
What sets Nube apart is its extremely low optical emissions, giving it a surface brightness of only 26.75 mag/arcsec2. This makes it ten times fainter than regular UDGs, which are already among the dimmest observable galaxies. To put it into perspective, deep-sky objects above 22 mag/arcsec are considered faint, and a completely dark sky has a surface brightness of 21.8 mag/arcsec.
With a stellar mass approximately 390 million times that of our Sun, Nube pales in comparison to our luminous Milky Way, which is about 3,800 times more massive. However, it is worth noting that even typical UDGs only have 1% as many stars as our home galaxy.
The discovery of Nube has sparked intriguing discussions among astronomers about the origin and nature of such galaxies. Did these peculiar properties emerge during their formation, or did something occur later? Exciting discoveries are on the horizon!
The results of this groundbreaking research have been published in a preprint journal and can be accessed here.
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