TWO million light years away, astronomers have found the first “dark galaxy” – a black cloud of hydrogen gas and exotic particles, devoid of stars.
Joshua Simon, Timothy Robishaw and Leo Blitz of the University of California, Berkeley, observed a cloud of hydrogen gas called HVC 127-41-330 using the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. It appears to be rotating so fast it would fall apart unless it contains a strong, hidden source of gravity. Simon and his colleagues argue that the cloud must be at least 80 per cent dark matter, the hypothetical invisible substance whose gravity is supposed to…
