Ancient Galaxy in the 'Sea Serpent' Has More Dark Matter Than Expected

[Judi Lynn]

By Doris Elin Salazar 3 hours ago

X-ray observations of a peculiar galaxy deep within the constellation Hydra (the Sea Serpent) have revealed more dark matter at its core than expected.

The galaxy is almost as old as the universe itself, representatives from NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory said in a statement published Monday (June 3). This celestial body, Markarian 1216, went through a different evolution than typical galaxies and is home to stars that are within 10% of the age of the universe.

To study the dark matter within this compact, elliptically shaped galaxy about 295 million light- years from Earth, researchers conducted new observations with the Chandra spacecraft. Markarian 1216 is packed with more dark matter in its core than researchers expected, according to their findings published June 1.



Two views of galaxy Markarian 1216. The red image on the left shows X-ray observations conducted by NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory, and the yellowish image on the right is composed of optical observations taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The brighter colors at the center of the Chandra image represent the increased density of hot gas in the galaxy's core.

(Image: © X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of CA Irvine/D. Buote; Optical: NASA/STScI )

Dark matter is like the invisible puppeteer of the universe: Astronomers see the movement of baryonic matter (protons and neutrons) and can indirectly detect that something is acting upon the more massive configurations, like stars and galaxies — but little is known about the dark matter itself.

More:
https://www.space.com/sea-serpent-galaxy-dark-matter-markarian-1216.html