What are dark galaxies and why are they a mystery to astronomers?

There is a popular phrase that is very difficult to refute: “Reality surpasses fiction“. In this sense, the universe is one of those that satisfies this maxim, since its vastness, its immeasurable strength and the mysteries that surround it are misunderstood by many people… Even by the scientists who study it. This is the case of calls”dark galaxiesWhat are they and why are they a mystery to astronomers?

Contemplating the stars is one of the most common habits of human beings since they have existed in the world. Earth. Galaxies, then, continue to be an object of fascination and study by various sciences, shrouded in mysteries yet to be discovered.

There is a fact that confirms this last thing: everything we know about the universe represents less than five percent of the total. The universe is dominated by a mysterious matter known as “dark matter“, whose name derives from the fact that it does not absorb, reflect or emit electromagnetic radiation, making it difficult to detect.

This matter, which is estimated to correspond to a 85% of the matter in the universeit is defined in astrophysics and cosmology as physics that does not emit any type of electromagnetic radiation, such as light.

What are dark galaxies?

In Wikipedia they define it as “an object the size of a galaxy that contains it”. very few or no stars, so it barely emits light. “It could contain gas, interstellar dust and dark matter,” he says.

Some dwarf galaxies may appear to lack dark matter although in the past they formed as galaxies dominated by dark matter.

In early 2024, a team of scientists from Green Bank Telescope (GBT) by chance they found an object that challenges conventional understanding of galaxies: J0613+52. It is a huge starless mass about 270 million light-years from Earth.

The team of astronomers assured that this object could be a nearby galaxy, but that it has no stars, but is a galaxy gas mist among the stars, like a typical normal galaxy, but floating alone in space. According to them, primordial galaxies are mainly composed of gas formed at the beginning of the Universe.

“The GBT accidentally indicated the wrong coordinates and found this object,” explained Karen O’Neil, one of the Green Bank scientists, as reported by several specialized portals. Discover a galaxy Therefore it is important to study one of the first stages of galaxy formation.

Why are they a mystery to astronomers?

Calls in English”dark galaxies“are mysterious cosmic objects that have puzzled astronomers for years. It’s just that there is a logic in non-understanding: they do not show a distinctive feature of other galaxies such as stars or light.

Unlike conventional galaxies, dark galaxies are virtually invisible to traditional telescopes, which is why they are so difficult to observe and a mystery to scientists. astronomers.

J0613+52 is almost as massive as the Milky Way, only it is visible through a radio telescope.