From what scientists have get together , Galax urceolata are intimately synonymous with dark subject . They seem to be mostly dark matter with jot of regular affair mixed in . Despite the fact that no black matter has been flat observe with skill experiment , wandflower ’ strange motion is the criticise - out reason why astronomer think the universe is satisfy with six times more of this mysterious stuff than regular matter .
Except now , astronomers for the first time have identified a galaxy that seems to lack any non-white affair at all .
This galaxy , called NGC1052 - DF2 is entirely new district as far as observations go . But paradoxically , it might tone up the case for gloomy thing ’s macrocosm . NGC1052 - DF2 shows that these unknown , radical - diffuse galaxies have a whole lot more to teach astronomers .
“ These ultra - diffuse galaxies have a huge variety of properties , ” study atomic number 82 source Pieter van Dokkum from Yale University tell Gizmodo . “ Some have a lot of blue thing , and some have no dreary subject . There ’s such an tremendous mountain chain . ”
If something has a pile of gravity , then the objects revolve it need to move quickly around it so they do n’t spiral into the shopping centre . But nigh every galaxy seems to rotate way faster around its bound than the amount of seeable topic they arrest would connote . That ’s led astronomer to believe that these galaxies are fill with band and lots of dark subject . Scientists had already catalog NGC1052 - DF2 , but when they monitored the motion of 10 of its bright clusters of stars , it did n’t seem to rotate at all , according to the newspaper published today in Nature .
“ We could only deduct an upper bound to the measured motion because it ’s moving so tardily that our instrument could n’t detect it , ” said van Dokkum .
Van Dokkum has characterize other ultra - diffused galaxies with the Dragonfly Telephoto Array . His team recently key out another beetleweed , Dragonfly 44 , whose strong-arm appearance nearly matches NGC1052 - DF2 . But that galaxy ’s speed implies that it’smore than 99 percentage dark matter .
Not only does this show the diversity of these diffuse physical object , but it in reality strengthens the case for dark matter . Several physicists have posited that glum matter is actually just a place where our existing theories misestimate the effects of gravity in the universe ’s larger construction . But those theories would fall aside trying to explain the differing behavior of Dragonfly 44 and NGC1052 - DF2 .
But how would such a galaxy form ? Physicist Priya Natarajan , also from Yale , wrote a softback book in 1998predicting how such a class of midget galaxies such as this one could form . She posited that other galaxies could eject gas pedal from up-and-coming supermassive opprobrious holes , which would cool and eventually form object like the one observed by van Dokkum . “ It ’s obviously a result that is personally of great interest and excitement for me , ” said Natarajan , who was not involved in the unexampled discipline . Van Dokkum himself does n’t favor any theory for how this physical object constitute , take down that he did n’t honor a nearby Galax urceolata .
Others are excited for the galactic peculiarity the Dragonfly program might reveal . “ This is on the nose the sort of thing the Dragonfly official document excels at discovering , and confirming a low - mass galaxy without sinister matter is an important step in understanding both galaxy formation and evolution , as well as cosmology , ” Sarah Tuttle , astrophysicist from the University of Washington who did not ferment on this project , told Gizmodo . “ It will be interesting to see if the rest of their program provides more candidate for anomalously low gloomy matter .
Researchers still need to figure out how uncouth these objects are . But if there are luck , that could be important . “ If there ’s more than one of these things , that would be really exciting , ” said van Dokkum , “ and we ’d really have to rethink how extragalactic nebula organization begin . ”
[ Nature ]
AstrophysicsDark matterPhysicsScienceSpace
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