Astronomers discover never-before-seen celestial object: "Cloud 9"
CBS News••general
Key Points:
- Researchers have confirmed the existence of a new astronomical object called "Cloud-9," a starless, gas-rich dark-matter hydrogen cloud located about 14 million light-years from Earth, providing insight into galaxy formation and the early universe.
- Cloud-9, identified three years ago and recently confirmed by the Hubble Space Telescope to contain no stars, is considered a "failed galaxy" and a primordial building block that never accumulated enough gas to form stars.
- The cloud spans approximately 4,900 light-years in diameter, contains neutral hydrogen with a mass one million times that of the sun, and is dominated by about five billion solar masses of dark matter, offering a rare opportunity to study dark matter structures.
- Situated near the spiral galaxy Mess
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