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Galaxies Made Of Nothing?

Posted by Hemos on from the what-about-counter-earth dept.

Ant writes: "There's an interesting article from theorists attempting to explain some of the "missing mass" in the universe now say there may be entire galaxies that are dark. The new idea, proposed by Neil Trentham of the University of Cambridge, along with colleagues Ole Moller and Enrico Ramirez-Ruizof, suggests that for every normal, star-filled galaxy, there may be 100 that contain nothing, or at least nothing that we understand."

2 of 9 comments (clear)

  1. I like it! by KjetilK · · Score: 3

    I find the idea of very dark galaxies appealing. For instance you have the binary quasar 2345+007, which can be a gravitational lens. If it is a gravitational lens, the lensing object is very dark, and it is also very massive. There has been some reports that a lensing galaxy has been seen, but no generally accepted conclusion has been drawn as to the nature of this quasar. So, this is exciting stuff!

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  2. Re:URL for paper by Black+Parrot · · Score: 4

    And here is a news article with a picture.

    No, not a picture of a dark galaxy... a picture of a visible galaxy with a trail of material streaming off like it has just had a brush with another, though there's no other in sight.

    BTW, the /. topic is typically misleading (do they do that on purpose?) -- dark matter != "nothing".

    And while we're on the topic, there are several cosmology articles in the January Scientific American, which was still on the shelves 2-3 days ago.

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