The Washington Post reports about research on a galaxy called Dragonfly 44 which is believed to contain about the same mass as the Milky Way but is only 1% as bright. The low ratio of luminosity to mass is characteristic of ultra diffuse galaxies (UDGs). The galaxy is believed to lie 101 megaparsecs (329 million light years) away. The researchers offer explanations for the dimness of UDGs:
[...] it may be that UDGs are "failed" galaxies that were prevented from building a normal stellar population, because of extreme feedback from supernovae and young stars (Agertz & Kravtsov 2015; Calura et al. 2015), gas stripping (Fujita 2004; Yozin & Bekki 2015), AGN feedback (Reines et al. 2013), or other effects.
"AGN" is short for active galactic nucleus — where matter falls into a supermassive black hole. The citation is to "Dwarf Galaxies with Optical Signatures of Active Massive Black Holes" (open, DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/775/2/116) (DX).
Previously: Huge Population of "Ultra-Dark Galaxies" Discovered
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday August 26 2016, @05:16PM
It takes six months to budget filling a pothole...
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 27 2016, @09:42AM
Did they know terrorists can hide in potholes? Let them know then there will be money and military contractors lining up around the block.