For the first time ever , an international squad of astronomers has unwrap a wandflower miss dark matter , the supposed and mysterious sum that ’s expect to outweigh regular affair – which throw us and everything we can see in the existence – five to one .
The discovery , put out inNature , is monumental . Dark issue is currently the best explanation for how galaxies are distributed in the macrocosm and how they behave . find a galaxy with no dark matter challenge this assumption . We thought that all galaxies formed inside coloured thing blob , or halos , but it seems there is at least one exception to the rule .
“ It recount us something about dark matter that we did n’t know , namely that it is separable from galaxies , " Professor Pieter van Dokkum from Yale University secern IFLScience . " Wherever we saw a beetleweed before , we also saw glowering matter . This indicate a unmediated coupling of where the dreary subject is and where the galaxies are . The whole scaffolding upon which the body structure in the universe is build is essentially dark matter . The galaxies are the froth that swim on this sea of dark matter . ”
The object , known as NGC1052 - DF2 , was first greet as a rummy coltsfoot using theDragonfly Telephoto Array , a innovational instrumental role dedicated to searching for particularly light-headed objects . The squad used 10 hopeful whizz clump to exercise out its aggregated dispersion and describe that the mass of the galaxy was basically the same as the mass of the stars in the beetleweed .
The team followed up these observations with the Hubble Space Telescope which showed them a sensational object , an almost ghost - corresponding galaxy . They also discovered that although DF2 is roughly the same size as the Milky Way ( about 100,000 wanton - days across ) it has 200 times few stars than our own extragalactic nebula . Estimates suggest that there should be 400 times more dismal topic in DF2 .
“ bump a wandflower without gloomy affair raises questions . Whyisthis ? Is it because dark matter cluster in a unlike agency than we thought in the other universe ? Is it because we do n’t really understand how dark matter behaves for these low - mass galax ? Or is this just some weird object that form in a way that is incredibly rarefied ? We do n’t make love the answers yet . We do n’t know how common this kind of galaxy is , ” Professor van Dokkum explained .
“ We have no well hypothesis for how this particular physical object make . multitude will have to make mannikin on how to construct something like this that do not involve sullen matter . The aim is there . It ’s calling out to us and saying ‘ Hey ! enter me out ’ . And that ’s our job . ”
While questions abound , we might also be get some reply . Dark matter is the favourite theory to excuse the universe but it is far from unparalleled . There have been several marriage proposal , somevery strict , and some less so , evoke that what we see as the effect of blue matter is in reality the final result of something missing from our gravitational models . These framework lay claim that the laws of sombreness might be different when apply to larger distances than we can not calculate on Earth . Finding this extragalactic nebula is a terrible black eye to those approaches .
“ According to those kinds of framework , this bastard colored matter signature tune is because it ’s part of the law of gravity , " Professor van Dokkum told us . " It is something that every galaxy should have . So even determine a exclusive object that does n’t have it is a Brobdingnagian problem for those models . Because it show that the anomalies we see in other galaxies they bespeak the presence of gloomy issue . Paradoxically , the fact we do n’t detect dark matter in this galaxy is what shows that it ’s real . It is a nub . ”
The next gradation is to happen out more about this object and determine whether it ’s a unique galaxy or one that ’s been missed due to its faintness .
“ I reckon now , the Leigh Hunt is on to see if this is a unique object or if there are more like it , " Professor van Dokkum point out . " We do even have some candidates among the small number of galaxies that we have observed . And then we ’ll search in a bombastic arena and I ’m sure that other people will cull up this research sphere too , just to see how common these objects are . ”
The researchers presently have 23 prospect objects seen by the Dragonfly telescope , and observations with Hubble evoke that some look like DF2 . They are now trying to measure how thing move in those galaxy to see if they lack dark affair as well . They trust to have some determination by the fall .
The hunt for dark issue is find fault up speed . From complexdetectorsto newtechto these kind of observations , we might be on the verge of finally uncovering the mysterious substance ’s true nature .
