While dark matter is still baffling scientists, we know that this elusive matter makes up for a significant part of the Universe. However, the discovery of a galaxy without dark matter is somewhat contradictory to the theories on it. Now, new research sorted out the mystery of that respective galaxy.
NGC1052-DF2, the galaxy without dark matter, was spotted in 2018. However, it’s not as close to the Earth as previously estimated, meaning that it might contain some dark matter. The dark matter is elusive, so we don’t know much about it, where it forms, and we can’t even directly detect it. But we know that it is there, and we can estimate its presence in the Universe since it’s having a similar effect as the mass in space.
“For decades, we thought that galaxies start their lives as blobs of dark matter. After that everything else happens: gas falls into the dark matter halos, the gas turns into stars, they slowly build up, then you end up with galaxies like the Milky Way. NGC1052-DF2 challenges the standard ideas of how we think galaxies form,” said Pieter van Dokkum of Yale University in 2018, after the discovery of the galaxy without dark matter.
Mystery Of The Galaxy Without Dark Matter Finally Sorted Out By Scientists
The finding of NGC1052-DF2 was surprising for scientists from all over the world. Now, in a new study, the researchers from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) reviewed the data on the allegedly first galaxy without dark matter that has ever been found.
They found out that the anomalous estimations made in the 2018 study that led to the conclusion that NGC1052-DF2 has no dark matter were related to the distance between the Earth and that galaxy, which is of about 64 million light years. The IAC astronomers recalculated the distance, and they concluded that NGC1052-DF2 is closer than previously estimated.
That result also pointed out that the alleged galaxy without dark matter is by 50 percent less massive than the 2018 study calculated. Accordingly, the rest of the mass should be dark matter. “With this revised distance, the galaxy appears to be a rather ordinary low surface brightness galaxy with plenty of room for dark matter,” the IAC scientists stated.
