Astronomers have for the first time detected a stellar stream beyond the Milky Way, opening new possibilities for studying dark matter, reports infohub.kz.
Scientists from the Niels Bohr Institute and the Technical University of Denmark found the trail of a globular cluster in the ultra-diffuse galaxy UGC9050-Dw1, which emits very little light. The results of the international team, led by Julia Keil Holm and Sarah Pearson, were published in the journal Nature.
Stellar streams form when clusters are disrupted and retain information about the dynamical history of systems. Previously, such faint objects could only be observed within our own galaxy. The scientists proved that this method is applicable to analyzing the distant depths of space and estimating the content of dark matter, which makes up most of the mass of the universe.
The analysis showed that UGC9050-Dw1 contains vast amounts of dark matter. The authors expect that the Euclid and Nancy Grace Roman telescopes will expand the search for such streams and provide new data on galaxy evolution.