Star-free galaxy a case of arrested development
An international team of astronomers says it has discovered an object that appears to be a galaxy without stars.
The galaxy seems to be an astronomical case of arrested development.
Galaxies are usually vast cosmic islands of stars, with the milky way galaxy home to around 100 billion stars.
But the newly discovered galaxy, in the constellation Virgo, seems to have none.
However it does have hydrogen gas, from which stars are made, and there is enough there to make a 100 million stars.
But for some reason stars never formed and astronomers using radio telescopes have instead found a giant gas cloud.
They have also worked out that for every tonne of hydrogen in the galaxy, there is another 1,000 tonnes of so-called dark matter whose identity is one of the great puzzles of modern astronomy
An international team of astronomers says it has discovered an object that appears to be a galaxy without stars.
The galaxy seems to be an astronomical case of arrested development.
Galaxies are usually vast cosmic islands of stars, with the milky way galaxy home to around 100 billion stars.
But the newly discovered galaxy, in the constellation Virgo, seems to have none.
However it does have hydrogen gas, from which stars are made, and there is enough there to make a 100 million stars.
But for some reason stars never formed and astronomers using radio telescopes have instead found a giant gas cloud.
They have also worked out that for every tonne of hydrogen in the galaxy, there is another 1,000 tonnes of so-called dark matter whose identity is one of the great puzzles of modern astronomy
Comments