Astronomers may have found the dark matter-dominated 'Galaxy X'

NASA file image
(Image credit: NASA/CXC/MIT/F.K.Baganoff/Getty Images)

Astronomers say they have made "observational confirmation" of a hidden, dwarf galaxy nicknamed "Galaxy X," NBC News reports.

Researchers have long believed that mysterious ripples through the Milky Way's hydrogen gas disk could be caused by a hidden dwarf galaxy's gravitational pull. In a paper set to appear in Astrophysical Journal Letters, astronomer Sukanya Chakrabarti and her colleagues say analysis of four young star clusters are likely a "signature of this predicted galaxy."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Their discovery "shows that our method of finding the location of dark-matter dominated dwarf galaxies works," Chakrabarti says. "It also shows that Newton's theory of gravity can be used out to the farthest reaches of a galaxy."

Explore More

Sarah Eberspacher is an associate editor at TheWeek.com. She has previously worked as a sports reporter at The Livingston County Daily Press & Argus and The Arizona Republic. She graduated from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.