Scientists have confirmed the discovery of a strange galaxy 72 million light years from Earth that appears to be missing its dark matter.
why it matters: It has long been believed that dark matter – the invisible stuff that makes up most of the matter in the universe – is a major component of galaxies, but the discovery complicates the picture.
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What they found: Researchers using the Hubble Space Telescope first discovered a galaxy lacking dark matter, called NGC 1052-DF2, in 2018, but New study of Astrophysics Journal Letter Confirm notes.
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Scientists have made accurate measurements of the distance to the galaxy – roughly the width of the Milky Way with 1/200 the number of stars – using Hubble.
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If a galaxy were closer to Earth than previously thought, it would become less intrinsically massive, meaning it would have to acquire more dark matter to appear the same, according to the researchers.
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However, new measurements show that DF2 is actually further away than scientists thought, at 72 million light-years away, not 65 million.
Storyline: It’s still unclear exactly how this dark matter-free galaxy formed, but it’s not the only one.
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Another galaxy — called NGC 1052-DF4 — that scientists have studied using Hubble also appears low in dark matter, and could have formed in the same galaxy cluster as DF2.
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Researchers say DF4’s dark matter may have been stripped away during its interactions with other galaxies early in its history.
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Shani Danieli, one of the authors of the new study, said in statement.
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