Scientists have discovered something almost invisible galaxy It challenges our understanding of the universe.
The cluster of stars is very dark Astronomer I had missed it when I observed the same part of space earlier. But this nearly undetectable galaxy was discovered by scientists who can’t explain how it got there.
“With our current knowledge, we cannot understand how galaxies with such extreme characteristics could exist,” said Mireia Montes, author of the new study reporting the discovery.
This galaxy is incredibly faint, 10 times fainter than other objects of its kind, yet it covers more than 10 times more space than galaxies with the same number of stars.
The name “Nube” comes from the Spanish word for cloud, and was named by the child of one of the astronomers who discovered it in recognition of its huge but thinly spread formation.
This was discovered when Ignacio Trujillo, one of the paper’s other authors, used images from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to examine specific parts of the sky. During one of those tests, a faint speck of light appeared, which piqued the interest of the scientists involved.
Scientists then used other images to confirm that the patch of light was not an error but a real object in space.
Still, there are still many unknowns about this object. For example, scientists think it’s about 300 million light years away from us, but it’s difficult to know how far away because it’s so faint.
Nube galaxies are not only mysterious, they are already challenging our understanding of the universe. Typically, galaxies tend to have a high density of stars in their interior regions, which decreases rapidly as they move away from the center. But newly discovered galaxies don’t see that effect, and it’s much more constant throughout.
This is not compatible without a pre-existing understanding of cosmology, and simulations cannot reduce extreme properties. “Within the currently accepted cosmological model, that is, cold dark matter, a viable explanation remains elusive,” Montes said.
