Astronomers spot distant dark matter blob, could be pure dark matter
Astronomers just found what might be the smallest chunk of pure dark matter—or a tiny dwarf galaxy—ever detected, sitting about 10 billion light-years from Earth.
They used a global network of radio telescopes and clever gravitational imaging to catch it by noticing a subtle "notch" in light from a distant galaxy.
The object is about a million times heavier than the Sun
This object is about a million times heavier than our Sun but totally dark, so scientists had to rely on its gravity bending background light.
By combining data from telescopes around the world, they mapped out this distortion.
Chris Fassnacht from UC Davis called it "an impressive achievement" to spot such a small, faraway object.
Results could help scientists better understand dark matter
If it turns out to be pure dark matter, this discovery backs up the cold dark matter theory—the idea that invisible particles can bunch up without making stars.
Published in Nature Astronomy, these results could help scientists better understand what dark matter is and how galaxies form.