A dark dwarf galaxy made almost entirely of dark matter has been discovered. Source: Pixabay, Pexels
Chinese astronomers have found an isolated dwarf galaxy made almost entirely of dark matter, emitting no optical light.
The galaxy was discovered by Chinese astronomers using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), the world’s largest single dish radio telescope.
The galaxy has been named FAST J0139+4328 and is around 94 million lightyears away.
Leader of the astronomy team, Jin-Long Xu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, said, “These findings provide observational evidence that FAST J0139+4328 is an isolated dark dwarf galaxy… This is the first time that an isolated dark galaxy has been detected in the nearby Universe.”
Most galaxies are brightly lit up with stars, which are formed within a rotating disk of gas. While FAST J0139+4328 also has the same disk shape, it is dominated by dark matter.
However, throughout their development, galaxies go through different stages of their appearance, and it is possible that FAST J0139+4328 is so dark because it is still in early stages of its formation, and that over time the dwarf galaxy could look more like other, more brightly lit galaxies.
“… a galaxy is assumed to form from gas, which cools and turns into stars at the center of a halo. FAST J0139+4328 has a rotating disk of gas and is dominated by dark matter, but is starless, implying that this dark galaxy may be in the earliest stage of the galaxy formation,” the astronomers wrote.
It is likely that other scientists will continue observing the galaxy to determine its nature.
