Mystery of Missing Dark Matter Deepens
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Read the news release: https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2021/news-2021-025
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Text, News from the Universe June 23 2021
Mystery of Missing Dark Matter Deepens. June 23 2021. Simulation Credit: NASA/GSFC, NCSA
Dark matter, though unseen, is understood to make up most of the universe into play a big role in galaxy formation.
In 2018, a team of astronomers found a diffuse dwarf galaxy with very little dark matter.
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Some scientists challenged the findings, saying the calculations were incorrect
The original science team set out to get better measurements with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.
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Scientists used Hubble to study the galaxy's red giant stars, which have a standard peak brightness.
Calculations show that the galaxy is even further than originally thought: 72 million light-years from Earth
These results indicate that the galaxy has 1/400th the amount of expected dark matter.
How the galaxy formed remains a mystery.
This news was brought to you in part by the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, MD