{"id":290343,"date":"2026-02-18T18:47:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T18:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/290343\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T18:47:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T18:47:13","slug":"evidence-found-for-dark-galaxy-in-perseus-cluster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/290343\/","title":{"rendered":"Evidence Found for Dark Galaxy in Perseus Cluster"},"content":{"rendered":"

The new dark galaxy candidate is dominated by dark matter and nearly devoid of light. Named Candidate Dark Galaxy-2 (CDG-2), the object consists of four globular clusters and belongs to the Perseus galaxy cluster<\/a>. The discovery of CDG-2 challenges astronomers\u2019 understanding of how galaxies form and evolve in the cosmic web, offering a new window into the Universe\u2019s most elusive substance, dark matter, which outweighs ordinary matter yet remains unseen.<\/p>\n

\"CDG-2<\/a><\/p>\n

CDG-2 (dashed red circle) is dominated by dark matter and contains only a sparse scattering of stars. Image credit: NASA \/ ESA \/ Dayi Li, UToronto \/ Joseph DePasquale, STScI.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the vast tapestry of the Universe, most galaxies shine brightly across cosmic time and space,\u201d said University of Toronto astronomer David Li and his colleagues.<\/p>\n

\u201cYet a rare class of galaxies remains nearly invisible \u2014 low-surface-brightness galaxies dominated by dark matter and containing only a sparse scattering of faint stars.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDetecting such faint galaxies is extraordinarily difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

Using advanced statistical techniques, Dr. Li and co-authors identified 10 previously confirmed low-surface-brightness galaxies and two additional dark galaxy candidates by searching for tight groupings of globular clusters.<\/p>\n

These clusters can signal the presence of a faint, hidden stellar population.<\/p>\n

To confirm one of the dark galaxy candidates, they employed the NASA\/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, ESA\u2019s Euclid space observatory, and the ground-based Subaru Telescope in Hawaii.<\/p>\n

Hubble\u2019s high-resolution imaging revealed a close collection of four globular clusters<\/a> in the Perseus cluster, a massive cluster of galaxies located around 240 million light-years away in the constellation of Perseus.<\/p>\n

Follow-up studies using Hubble, Euclid, and Subaru then revealed a faint, diffuse glow surrounding the star clusters \u2014 strong evidence of an underlying galaxy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first galaxy detected solely through its globular cluster population,\u201d Dr. Li said.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder conservative assumptions, the four clusters represent the entire globular cluster population of CDG-2.\u201d<\/p>\n

Preliminary analysis suggests CDG-2 has the luminosity of roughly 6 million Sun-like stars, with the globular clusters accounting for 16% of its visible content.<\/p>\n

Remarkably, 99% of its mass, which includes both visible matter and dark matter, appears to be dark matter.<\/p>\n

Much of its normal matter to enable star formation was likely stripped away by gravitational interactions with other galaxies inside the Perseus cluster.<\/p>\n

\u201cCDG-2 may be the most globular cluster-dominated galaxy and potentially one of the most dark matter-dominated galaxies ever discovered,\u201d the astronomers concluded.<\/p>\n

Their paper<\/a> was published in June 2025 in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.<\/p>\n

_____<\/p>\n

Dayi (David) Li et al. 2025. Candidate Dark Galaxy-2: Validation and Analysis of an Almost Dark Galaxy in the Perseus Cluster. ApJL 986, L18; doi: 10.3847\/2041-8213\/adddab<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The new dark galaxy candidate is dominated by dark matter and nearly devoid of light. Named Candidate Dark…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[161009,161010,2598,1022,161011,5434,90538,15110,3323,111,139,69,161012,147,2737,3327,6988,144413],"class_list":{"0":"post-290343","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-cdg-2","9":"tag-dark-galaxy","10":"tag-dark-matter","11":"tag-esa","12":"tag-euclid","13":"tag-galaxy","14":"tag-globular-cluster","15":"tag-hubble","16":"tag-nasa","17":"tag-new-zealand","18":"tag-newzealand","19":"tag-nz","20":"tag-perseus-galaxy-cluster","21":"tag-science","22":"tag-star","23":"tag-star-cluster","24":"tag-star-formation","25":"tag-subaru-telescope"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}