Astronomers may have found a dark, primordial galaxy — an enormous, undisturbed mass of cold hydrogen gas that has yet to form any stars — sitting in the modern-day universe.
Astronomers Accidentally Find A Galaxy That Hasn’t Birthed Any Stars
A typo sent an enormous radio telescope to the wrong patch of sky — where it discovered an invisible galaxy-sized cloud of hydrogen gas.
By Mark Zastrow
Mar 1, 2024 3:00 PM
The colors in this image are an artist’s depiction of the rotation of the hydrogen in galaxy J0613+52, as detected by the Green Bank Telescope. Red is gas moving away from us and blue is gas moving toward us. Credit: STScI POSS-II with additional illustration by NSF/GBO/P.Vosteen
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