BREAKING NEWS: First Dark Galaxy Found?

A cloud of gas in the Virgo Cluster may be the first dark galaxy ever found.
The mysterious object has one-tenth the Milky Way's mass but consists of
hydrogen gas and dark matter--with no detectable stars.

"If we can pin down what it is, it'll be an interesting clue to galaxy
formation," says Martin Rees of Cambridge University, who was not part of
the discovery team. "It could be a dark halo where, for some reason, some
of the gas was swept out or the gas is more spread out than in a typical
galaxy."

The full story is at http://KenCroswell.com/FirstDarkGalaxy.html .

Correct email: MagnificentUniverse "at" yahoo "dot" com.

On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 22:50:53 GMT, "Magnificent Universe"
wrote:

A cloud of gas in the Virgo Cluster may be the first dark galaxy ever found.
The mysterious object has one-tenth the Milky Way's mass but consists of
hydrogen gas and dark matter--with no detectable stars.

No stars = no galaxy. Maybe it's a huge dust cloud or nebula?
Is it possible for closely-packed stars to sequentially explode
due to some kind of chain-reaction?
-Rich

Or it could be fairy dust and butterfly wings. Makes about as much sense
as the theories of dark matter put forth so far.

Magnificent Universe wrote:
A cloud of gas in the Virgo Cluster may be the first dark galaxy ever found.
The mysterious object has one-tenth the Milky Way's mass but consists of
hydrogen gas and dark matter--with no detectable stars.

"If we can pin down what it is, it'll be an interesting clue to galaxy
formation," says Martin Rees of Cambridge University, who was not part of
the discovery team. "It could be a dark halo where, for some reason, some
of the gas was swept out or the gas is more spread out than in a typical
galaxy."

The full story is at http://KenCroswell.com/FirstDarkGalaxy.html .

Correct email: MagnificentUniverse "at" yahoo "dot" com.

Tim Killian:
Or it could be fairy dust and butterfly wings. Makes about as much sense
as the theories of dark matter put forth so far.

If one of those butterfly wings should flutter, would it cause a
hurricane in the Atlantic?

Davoud

Maybe it is a galaxy of fairy gas and black holes.

RichA wrote:

On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 22:50:53 GMT, "Magnificent Universe"
wrote:

A cloud of gas in the Virgo Cluster may be the first dark galaxy ever found.
The mysterious object has one-tenth the Milky Way's mass but consists of
hydrogen gas and dark matter--with no detectable stars.

No stars = no galaxy.

No dust = no stars.
No deity = no dust!
No deity = no newsgroup!!

Maybe it's a huge dust cloud or nebula?
Is it possible for closely-packed stars to sequentially explode
due to some kind of chain-reaction?
-Rich

Rebus wrote:

RichA wrote:


On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 22:50:53 GMT, "Magnificent Universe"
wrote:


A cloud of gas in the Virgo Cluster may be the first dark galaxy ever found.
The mysterious object has one-tenth the Milky Way's mass but consists of
hydrogen gas and dark matter--with no detectable stars.

No stars = no galaxy.


No dust = no stars.
No deity = no dust!
No deity = no newsgroup!!

No brain = No headache

Tim Killian wrote:
Or it could be fairy dust and butterfly wings. Makes about as much sense
as the theories of dark matter put forth so far.

Not at all. They detected it because it is mostly made of neutral
hydrogen that has apparently not reached the critical density to
initiate star formation. This confirms a theoretical prediction made in
1964 by Toomre. Until now nothing like this object had been observed.

Neutral hydrogen in the 21cm band was used to find it. Such deep wide
area surveys have only recently become possible. It is very interesting
that they have found the first ever serious candidate for this type of
object.

Dark haloes of matter are necessarily going to be very hard to find
since they emit little or no visible light and have internal high
velocity dispersion. Hard to detect but no longer impossible.

Regards,
Martin Brown

Magnificent Universe wrote:

A cloud of gas in the Virgo Cluster may be the first dark galaxy ever
found.
The mysterious object has one-tenth the Milky Way's mass but consists of
hydrogen gas and dark matter--with no detectable stars.

"If we can pin down what it is, it'll be an interesting clue to galaxy
formation," says Martin Rees of Cambridge University, who was not part of
the discovery team. "It could be a dark halo where, for some reason,
some
of the gas was swept out or the gas is more spread out than in a typical
galaxy."

The full story is at http://KenCroswell.com/FirstDarkGalaxy.html .

Correct email: MagnificentUniverse "at" yahoo "dot" com.

RichA wrote:
On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 22:50:53 GMT, "Magnificent Universe"
wrote:


A cloud of gas in the Virgo Cluster may be the first dark galaxy ever found.
The mysterious object has one-tenth the Milky Way's mass but consists of
hydrogen gas and dark matter--with no detectable stars.


No stars = no galaxy. Maybe it's a huge dust cloud or nebula?
Is it possible for closely-packed stars to sequentially explode
due to some kind of chain-reaction?
-Rich

Would you believe "proto-dwarf galaxy"?

Uncle Bob