Astrophysicist baffled after discovering ‘INVISIBLE’ galaxy named ‘Nube’ that could change scientists’ understanding of universe

Astronomers discovered a nearly invisible dwarf galaxy that cannot be explained by our current understanding of the universe.

The mysteriously faint formation – named Nube – is unique because of its high dark matter content and low mass at its center.

These unusual features mean that Nube’s stars are very spread out and the galaxy therefore emits little light, allowing it to escape detection for years.

The galaxy is ten times fainter than most other galaxies of the same size.

“With our current knowledge, we do not understand how a galaxy with such extreme features can exist,” said Mireia Montes, lead author of the study and an astrophysicist at the Canary Islands Institute of Astrophysics.

Scientists believe the galaxy is 300 million light-years away from the Milky Way, but further research is needed to determine its exact location.

It was discovered by researchers from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the University of La Laguna (ULL).

Nube, which means cloud in Spanish, is named for its appearance as a nearly dark galaxy with only a small amount of mass in the center.

Researchers involved in the study said finding the galaxy is important because its faint brightness, caused by large amounts of dark matter, has allowed it to evade detection.

Dark matter is the absence of light or energy, making it completely invisible so that conventional sensors and detectors cannot find it.

Researchers analyzed data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and noticed an inconsistency that led them to take a closer look at the findings.

They took ultra-deep multicolor images of the anomaly with the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) and the Gran Telescopio Canaria (GTC) and when they discovered the dwarf galaxy they wondered how it could be held together if there is such a small amount of mass used to be. in the middle.

Researchers took three separate images using the Sloan survey and multi-color photos using the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) and the Gran Telescopio Canaria (GTC).

The mass would normally act as gravity to hold the stars in place, but the galaxy’s existence, despite its limited mass, contradicts astronomers’ previous claims that dark matter requires high levels of mass to be able to to exist.

“One possibility that is attractive is that Nube’s unusual properties show us that the particles that make up dark matter have an extremely small mass,” says study co-author Ignacio Trujillo, astrophysicist at the Canary Islands Institute of Astrophysics Islands. .

He added that if dark matter consisted of a small mass, “it would be one of the most beautiful demonstrations of nature, uniting the world of the smallest with that of the largest.”

However, this is just one possibility, and researchers involved in the study say more research needs to be done, but their findings could change the way scientists view dark matter and the universe.

“We have known for some time that the current model of cold dark matter does not fully explain certain properties of the galaxies we see,” Dr. Mireia Montes, lead author of the study and researcher at the IAC and the ULL. Dailymail.com.

She said this type of galaxy could help researchers discover more information about dark matter, and while they may not be able to fully explain what they know now, they must resort to questioning the properties of dark matter .

“I think the most obvious outcome is to test and gradually improve what we already know to better understand our universe,” Montes said, adding, “But the potential is enormous!”