November 22, 2024

Ghost in the Cosmos: Almost Invisible Galaxy Challenges Dark Matter Model

The discovery of Nube, a faint and extended dwarf galaxy, obstacles existing astrophysical designs. Nube is an almost undetectable dwarf galaxy found by a worldwide research study team led by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) in partnership with the University of La Laguna (ULL) and other institutions.The name was recommended by the 5-year-old daughter of one of the researchers in the group, and is due to the scattered look of the object. The research study team quote that Nube is a dwarf galaxy 10 times fainter than others of its type, however likewise 10 times more extended than other objects with a comparable number of stars. To show what this implies to anyone who knows a little astronomy, this galaxy is one third of the size of the Milky Way, but has a mass similar to that of the Small Magellanic Cloud.Image of the Nube galaxy through different telescopes. “If the galaxy turns out to be nearer, it will still be a really weird things, and offer major difficulties to astrophysics” remarks Ignacio Trujillo.Another difficulty to the present dark matter model?The general guideline is that galaxies have a much larger density of stars in their inner areas, and that this density falls rapidly with increasing distance from the centre.

The discovery of Nube, a prolonged and faint dwarf galaxy, obstacles existing astrophysical designs. Its special characteristics might offer new insights into the universe and the nature of dark matter. (Artists principle.) Credit: SciTechDaily.comA group of astrophysicists led by Mireia Montes, a researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), has found the largest and most scattered galaxy taped previously. The study has been released in the journal Astronomy & & Astrophysics, and has used information taken with the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) and the Green Bank Radiotelescope (GBT). Nube is a practically invisible dwarf galaxy discovered by a global research study group led by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) in partnership with the University of La Laguna (ULL) and other institutions.The name was recommended by the 5-year-old daughter of among the researchers in the group, and is because of the scattered look of the item. Its surface area brightness is so faint that it had passed undetected in the various previous surveys of this part of the sky, as if it were some sort of ghost. This is because its stars are so spread out in such a big volume that “Nube” (the Spanish for “Cloud”) was practically undetectable.This newly found galaxy has a set of specific residential or commercial properties which differentiate it from formerly understood things. The research group price quote that Nube is a dwarf galaxy 10 times fainter than others of its type, however likewise 10 times more extended than other objects with a comparable variety of stars. To show what this indicates to anyone who understands a little astronomy, this galaxy is one third of the size of the Milky Way, but has a mass comparable to that of the Small Magellanic Cloud.Image of the Nube galaxy through various telescopes. Credit: SDSS/GTC/IAC” With our present understanding we do not comprehend how a galaxy with such severe attributes can exist” discusses Mireia Montes, the first author of the post, a researcher at the IAC and the ULL.For some years, Ignacio Trujillo, the second author of the article, has actually been analyzing, based on the SDSS images (Sloan Digital Sky Survey), a specific strip of sky, in the framework of the project Legado del IAC Stripe 82. In one of the modifications of the information, they discovered a faint patch that looked adequately intriguing to establish a research project.The next step was to utilize ultra-deep multicolor images from the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), to verify that this patch in the study was not some kind of error, however is an incredibly scattered things. Due of its faintness, it is difficult to determine the exact distance of Nube. Using an observation obtained with the Green Bank Telescope (GBT), in the United States, the authors estimated the distance of Nube to be 300 million light years, although upcoming observations with the Very Large Array (VLA) radiotelescope and the optical William Herschel Telescope (WHT) at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, La Palma, need to assist them to show whether this distance is correct. “If the galaxy turns out to be nearer, it will still be an extremely strange things, and deal significant difficulties to astrophysics” remarks Ignacio Trujillo.Another difficulty to today dark matter model?The general guideline is that galaxies have a much larger density of stars in their inner areas, which this density falls quickly with increasing range from the centre. Montes states that in Nube, “the density of stars varies very little throughout the object, which is why it is so faint, and we have not been able to observe it well up until we had the ultra-deep images from the GTC.” The Nube galaxy. The figure is a composition of a colour image and a white and black image, to choose the background. Credit: GTC/Mireia MontesNube has the astronomers puzzled. Prima facie, the group discusses, there is no interaction, or other indicator of its strange properties. Cosmological simulations are unable to replicate its “severe” qualities, even on the basis of different situations. “We are left without a practical explanation within the presently accepted cosmological model, that of cold dark matter” explains Montes.The cold dark matter design can replicate the massive structures in the universe, but there are little scale scenarios, such as the case of Nube, for which it can not give an excellent response. We have actually demonstrated how the various theoretical designs can not produce it, which makes it one of the most severe cases known up until now. “It is possible that with this galaxy, and comparable ones which we may find, we can find extra hints which will open a new window on the understanding of deep space” remarks Montes.” One possibility which is attractive, is that the unusual properties of Nube are revealing us that the particles that make up dark matter have a very small mass” says Ignacio Trujillo. If this was so, the unusual homes of this galaxy would be a demonstration of the residential or commercial properties of quantum physics, but on a galactic scale. “If this hypothesis is validated, it would be one of the most stunning presentation of nature, unifying the world of the smallest with that of the largest” he concludes.Reference: “A nearly dark galaxy with the mass of the Small Magellanic Cloud” by Mireia Montes, Ignacio Trujillo, Ananthan Karunakaran, Raúl Infante-Sainz, Kristine Spekkens, Giulia Golini, Michael Beasley, Maria Cebrián, Nushkia Chamba, Mauro DOnofrio, Lee Kelvin and Javier Román, 9 January 2024, Astronomy & & Astrophysics.DOI: 10.1051/ 0004-6361/2023 47667.