US EditionNew ‘Cloud-9’ Object Could Reveal the Secrets of Dark Matter
Cloud-9, a gas-rich dark matter cloud with about five billion solar masses, offers rare insight into primordial galaxies that never formed stars, researchers say.
- Recently, the NASA / European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope confirmed Cloud-9 as a starless, hydrogen-rich, dark-matter-dominated object about 14 million light-years from Earth.
- After ground-based follow-ups fell short, Hubble was used to scrutinize the cloud first spotted years ago by FAST with Green Bank and VLA observations.
- Researchers measured a neutral-hydrogen core about 4,900 light-years across, containing roughly 1 million solar masses of gas and dominated by 5 billion solar masses of dark matter.
- The finding immediately prompted plans for research teams planning new radio surveys to hunt for similar failed galaxies and test models of dark matter and galaxy formation, with Andrew Fox describing Cloud-9 as a rare window into the dark universe.
- Linked to Messier 94, Cloud-9 suggests more Reionization-Limited H I Clouds exist and may evolve into star-bearing galaxies despite a 2008 study finding almost no dark matter in M94.
14 Articles
14 Articles
NASA Confirms First Known 'Failed Galaxy'
Astronomers say they've finally spotted something they've only talked about in theory: a "failed galaxy" made mostly of dark matter and gas, with not a single star in sight. NASA has nicknamed the object "Cloud-9," describing it as a starless, hydrogen-rich cloud dominated by dark matter about 14 million light-years...
Hubble observes Cloud-9, a failed galaxy dominated by dark matter
The researchers describe Cloud-9 as a failed galaxy, a "relic" or remnant of the processes that gave rise to early galaxies. Alejandro Benitez-Llambay suggested that the cloud can be considered a fundamental building block of a galaxy that never fully formed.Read Entire Article
»Wolke-9« apparently contains no stars and could consist largely of dark matter. Perhaps it is just such an object of many.
This mysterious object, called Cloud-9, is about 14.3 million light years away from Earth, near the spiral galaxy M94. Its discovery offers scientists an overview of the early stages of the formation of galaxies. - Space: what is Cloud-9, this new astronomical object discovered by Hubble? (Sciences).
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