Scientists Weirded Out by Cosmic Bones in Distant Space

"In this case, seeing no stars is what proves the theory right. It tells us that we have found in the local Universe a primordial building block of a galaxy that hasn't formed."

"We know from theory that most of the mass in the Universe is expected to be dark matter, but it's difficult to detect this dark material because it doesn't emit light. Cloud-9 gives us a rare look at a dark-matter-dominated cloud."

"dark-matter bones of a failed galaxy."

Observations from the Hubble Space Telescope identified a starless, gas-rich cloud labeled Cloud-9 that is dominated by dark matter. The cloud lacks detectable stars and appears to be a primordial, failed galaxy fragment or fossil leftover. Most of the cloud's mass resides in a nonluminous component consistent with dark matter, providing a rare example of a dark-matter-dominated structure in the local Universe. The absence of stars supports models in which low-mass dark matter halos fail to form or retain baryons. Cloud-9 offers a direct probe of dark-matter-driven structure formation and constraints on baryon–dark matter interactions.

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