Galaxy Discovered With No Trace of Dark Matter

Dark Matter Concept

Dark matter concept art.

An international team of astronomers led by researchers from the Netherlands has found no trace of dark matter in the galaxy AGC 114905, despite taking detailed measurements over a course of forty hours with state-of-the-art telescopes. They will present their findings in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

When Pavel Mancera Piña (University of Groningen and ASTRON, the Netherlands) and his colleagues discovered six galaxies with little to no dark matter, they were told “measure again, you’ll see that there will be dark matter around your galaxy.” However, after forty hours of detailed observations using the Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico (United States), the evidence for a dark matter-free galaxy only became stronger.

The galaxy in question, AGC 114905, is about 250 million light-years away. It is classified as an ultra-diffuse dwarf galaxy, with the name ‘dwarf galaxy’ referring to its luminosity and not to its size. The galaxy is about the size of our own Milky Way but contains a thousand times fewer stars. The prevailing idea is that all galaxies, and certainly ultra-diffuse dwarf galaxies, can only exist if they are held together by dark matter.

Galaxy AGC 114905

The galaxy AGC 114905. The stellar emission of the galaxy is shown in blue. The green clouds show the neutral hydrogen gas. The galaxy does not appear to contain any dark matter, even after 40 hours of detailed measurements with state-of-the-art telescopes. Credit: Javier Román & Pavel Mancera Piña

The researchers collected data on the rotation of gas in AGC 114905 for 40 hours between July and October 2020 using the VLA telescope. Subsequently, they made a graph showing the distance of the gas from the center of the galaxy on the x-axis and the rotation speed of the gas on the y-axis. This is a standard way to reveal the presence of dark matter. The graph shows that the motions of the gas in AGC 114905 can be completely explained by just normal matter.

“This is, of course, what we thought and hoped for because it confirms our previous measurements,” says Pavel Mancera Piña. “But now the problem remains that the theory predicts that there must be dark matter in AGC 114905, but our observations say there isn’t. In fact, the difference between theory and observation is only getting bigger.”

In their scientific publication, the researchers list the possible explanations for the lack of dark matter one by one. For example, AGC 114905 could have been stripped of dark matter by large nearby galaxies. Mancera Piña: “But there are none. And in the most reputed galaxy formation framework, the so called cold dark matter model, we would have to introduce extreme parameter values that are far beyond the usual range. Also with modified Newtonian dynamics, an alternative theory to cold dark matter, we cannot reproduce the motions of the gas within the galaxy.”

According to the researchers, there is one more assumption that could change their conclusions. That is the estimated angle at which they think they are observing the galaxy. “But that angle has to deviate very much from our estimate before there is room for dark matter again,” says co-author Tom Oosterloo (ASTRON).

Meanwhile, the researchers are examining a second ultra-diffuse dwarf galaxy in detail. If again observe no trace of dark matter in that galaxy, it will make the case for dark matter poor galaxies even stronger.

The research of Mancera Piña and colleagues is not an isolated case. Earlier, for example, the Dutch American Pieter van Dokkum (Yale University, USA) discovered a galaxy with hardly any dark matter. The techniques and measurements of Mancera Piña and colleagues are more robust.

Reference: “No need for dark matter: resolved kinematics of the ultra-diffuse galaxy AGC 114905” by Pavel E. Mancera Piña, Filippo Fraternali, Tom Oosterloo, Elizabeth A. K. Adams, Kyle A. Oman and Lukas Leisman, pending, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
arXiv:2112.00017

12 Comments on "Galaxy Discovered With No Trace of Dark Matter"

  1. Howard Jeffrey Bender, Ph.D. | December 6, 2021 at 7:22 pm | Reply

    I suggest the astronomers are confusing Dark Matter with galaxy shape.

    From a view of String Theory, Dark Matter appears to us as an effect of string/anti-string annihilations. Specifics on this can be found in my YouTube, Dark Matter – A String Theory Way at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N84yISQvGCk.

    Galaxy shape, on the other hand, originates from the central core and is maintained by Dark Matter. Again from String Theory, if the central core is a brane (dimensional membrane) that doesn’t include a Mass dimension, then star-forming strings would be created from it but those created stars wouldn’t be tightly bound to the brane, as they are in “normal” galaxies like the Milky Way. Dark Matter would still be there but not as a “partner” with the central core.
    A general description of this can be found in my YouTube, Creating Universes – A String Theory Way at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaxfuKXdhkg&t=6s

  2. Could Dark Matter be Helium 4 or 3 ?
    If helium 3 and 4 can escape most gravitational fields – why couldn’t the composition of dark matter in the universe be helium 3 or 4 gravity particles ?

    Baryonic dark matter conversion of matter to helium-4 ? see

    Baryonic dark matter

    Big Bang nucleosynthesis

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baryonic_dark_matter

    Helium 4 from Baryonic dark matter ? Wiki Oct 12th 2020

    Big Bang nucleosynthesis
    From the perspective of Big Bang nucleosynthesis, a larger amount of ordinary (baryonic) matter implies a denser early universe, more efficient conversion of matter to helium-4, and less unburned deuterium remaining. If all of the dark matter in the universe were baryonic, then there would be much less deuterium in the universe than is observed.

    About Helium

    please read

    ” All elements other than hydrogen and helium today account for only 2% of the mass of atomic matter in the universe. Helium-4, by contrast, makes up about 23% of the universe’s ordinary matter—nearly all the ordinary matter that is not hydrogen. ”

    Helium – Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org › wiki › Helium

    If this is true that 23% of the Helium in the universe is unexplained , there is a little known fact that Helium 3 and 4 can not freeze even at an alleged 0 Kelvin temperature.

    As I have been trying to understand how and when and where motion first started in the universe to me it is apparent that this 23% of the unexplained helium in the universe is left over from a past cycle of expanding and decay of galaxies , leaving helium 3 and 4 and gravity …meaning the universe is much older than 13.8 Billion years ( my guess is the universe is in its forth cycle of decay and is about 4 x 13.8 billion yo or about 60 billion yo ) and that motion has been existence in the universe even before that, because if everything decayed to absolute ZERO Kelvin there would be no motion – but the universe allegedly cant go back to a motionless state now, because Helium 4 can not freeze this saving the day of a motionless static universe in the future.

    source of Helium information ;

    Steady State Galaxy Theory

    see Steady State Galaxy Theory

    RUFUS’S GALAXY WEB PAGE

    http://www.roycaswell.co.uk…

    ” Basic Operation of Galaxies

    A Phys Org writer barakn replied to my post

    “ why couldn’t the composition of dark matter in the universe be helium 3 or 4 gravity particles ? ”

    ” Because helium isn’t invisible, and would be seen. A strong absorption/emission line in the yellow part of the spectrum as clusters of lines in the red and blue.”

    my reply was:

    Helium isn’t invisible at 4 Kelvin ?

    Quote:

    ” Helium is a colorless, odorless, unreactive gas which liquefies at -268.97°C (4.18 K). ..” Helium is the only element that cannot be solidified ( freeze )

    Helium is the second most abundant element in the universe, and the second lightest element.

    It is estimated that our sun produces 700 million tons of helium per second.

    Helium has the lowest boiling point of all elements—4.2 degrees Kelvin (that -268.8 Celsius)—just 4 degrees above absolute zero. Helium is the only element that cannot be solidified by sufficient cooling at normal atmospheric pressure

    . The element gradually escapes into space as the earth’s gravity is not strong enough to retain it.

    Sincerely

    Daniel Izzo ( help yourself improving the idea )
    Syracuse NY USA

    Helium isn’t invisible at 4 kelvin ?

    This tells me you have no idea how an absorption spectrum occurs. It occurs when light from another source passes through

    Aren’t you referring to ionization ?

    Helium’s absorption of what in the 3 Kelvin vacuum of empty space ?

    Helium is supposed somehow ionize into a plasma and emit orange and pink light without an energy source other than gravity at 3 Kelvin ?

    Even in our solar system, can we observe the 700 million tons of helium emitted from the sun every second ?

    Quote: ” It is estimated that our sun produces 700 million tons of helium per second.”

    He is talking about the topic of “spectroscopy”, specifically “absorption spectroscopy”.

    The sun also produces a lot of light. This light passes through the He, and we can spot the absorption lines of He using a prism, thus we know there is He between us and the sun.

    Where does the helium go after it is emitted from the sun? Empty space?

  3. The lack of detection of Dark Matter in this Ultra Diffuse Galaxy makes sense in the context of CIG Theory (see the book “I Have Become Space” by Douglas W Lipp). In CIG, the Dark Matter unfolds from the motion of the mass of the galaxy, that is , matter turning to its various spacetime curvatures. (matter is the degree of spacetime density – this is a new efinition of Matter as per CIG Theory). At slow speeds, the matter unfolds into Dark Matter, at fast speeds (near or at “c”), the matter turns into Dark Energy. It follows Lorentz Transformation math. Other traits of this diffuse galaxy should be that it is low in its energy density (i.e. diffuse), its mass to Dark Matter offerings. And, the outer stars orbit slowly. The Dark Matter is there, but mitigated by the diffussness, If there were a diffuse cloud of gas, the observed Dark Matter would be even less. Less motion of mass = less Dark Matter and Dark Energy.

  4. Pavel Mancera Piña:
    Look a third time. You will also find that all of these ultra diffuse galaxies lack a central supermassive black hole, (SMB). As Hawking understood, the Uncertainty Principle dictates that the amount of CDM in and around galaxies is a direct result of two-pair production at the event horizon of SMBs.
    This, as you already know, is the source of Hawking Radiation. What I have discovered is that the central SMB is also the source of CDM in the immediate vicinity of the SMB. And over billions of years, this CDM migrates outward from the region of the SMB to the galaxy at large and is responsible for the anomalous radial velocities that have been observed.
    The source of the CDM production is from within the SMB itself. As matter is drawn over the even horizon, it undergoes rapid spaghettification to the extent that the matter is reduce to smaller and smaller components until all that remains is those virtual particles of Heisenberg. First, molecules are shredded, then the atomic structure is torn apart, and ultimately even quarks are ripped apart – leaving only the gravity carrying virtual particles.
    This implies that there is no singularity…but rather an ultra dense conglomerate of virtual particles. And according to the Uncertainty Principle, slightly more than half of these particles can escape out into the galaxy at large – which in turn adds to the strength of the gravitational field and keeps the galaxy’s density of CDM constantly growing. As you know, the radial velocities of stars in the outer regions of all galaxies with SMBs is dictated by the presence of CDM.
    This hypothetical model of CDM production as a result SMBs predicts that those galaxies lacking SMBs will also be found to contain no dark matter and the reverse is also true – where there is no dark matter found…there will also be no supermassive black hole. CDM is therefore reliant on SMBs in and around the parent galaxies.

  5. String Theory? Haven’t the recent series of LHC experiments put them into terminal condition? As is often the case, easy math doesn’t make for good physics.

  6. What is the big deal? From my understanding dark matter hasn’t been “found” yet in any galaxy, not even our own. That’s why it’s still called “Dark.”

  7. I thought gravity was responsible for holding galixies together and dark matter pulling them apart

  8. Babu G. Ranganathan | December 8, 2021 at 7:49 am | Reply

    Babu G. Ranganathan*
    (B.A. Bible/Biology)

    JUST BECAUSE SCIENCE CAN EXPLAIN how an airplane works doesn’t mean that no one designed or made the airplane. And just because science can explain how life or the universe works doesn’t mean there was no Designer and Maker behind them.

    Natural laws may explain how the order in the universe works and operates, but mere undirected natural laws cannot explain the origin of that order. Once you have a complete and living cell then the genetic code and biological machinery exist to direct the formation of more cells from raw materials such as amino acids and other chemicals, but how could life or the cell have naturally originated when no directing code and mechanisms existed in nature? Read my Internet article: HOW FORENSIC SCIENCE REFUTES ATHEISM.

    WHAT IS SCIENCE? Science simply is knowledge based on observation. No human observed the universe coming by chance or by design, by creation or by evolution. These are positions of faith. The issue is which faith the scientific evidence best supports.

    SCIENCE SHOWS THAT THE UNIVERSE CANNOT BE ETERNAL because it could not have sustained itself eternally due to the law of entropy (increasing and irreversible net energy decay, even in an open system). Even a hypothetical oscillating universe could not continue to oscillate eternally! Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity shows that space, matter, and time all are physical and all had a beginning. Space even produces particles because it’s actually something, not nothing. What about the Higgs boson (the so-called “God Particle”)? The Higgs boson, even if it existed, would not have created mass from nothing, but rather it would have converted energy into mass. Einstein showed that all matter is some form of energy. Even time had a beginning! Time is not eternal.

    The law of entropy doesn’t allow the universe to be eternal. If the universe were eternal, everything, including time (which modern science has shown is as physical as mass and space), would have become totally entropied by now and the entire universe would have ended in a uniform heat death a long, long time ago. The fact that this hasn’t happened already is powerful evidence for a beginning to the universe.

    Popular atheistic scientist Stephen Hawking admits that the universe had a beginning and came from nothing but he believes that nothing became something by a natural process yet to be discovered. That’s not rational thinking at all, and it also would be making the effect greater than its cause to say that nothing created something. The beginning had to be of supernatural origin because science teaches us from the First Law of Thermodynamics that natural laws and processes do not have the ability to bring something into existence from nothing.

    The supernatural origin of the universe cannot be proved by science but science points to a supernatural intelligence and power for the origin and order of the universe. Where did God come from? Obviously, unlike the universe, God’s nature doesn’t require a beginning.

    The disorder in the universe can be explained because of chance and random processes, but the order can be explained only because of intelligence and design.

    Gravity may explain how the order found in the precise and orderly courses of thousands of billions of stars is maintained, but gravity cannot explain the origin of that order.

    Some evolutionary astronomers believe that trillions of stars crashed into each other leaving surviving stars to find precise orderly orbits in space. Not only is this irrational, but if there was such a mass collision of stars then there would be a super mass residue of gas clouds in space to support this hypothesis. The present level of residue of gas clouds in space doesn’t support the magnitude of star deaths required for such a hypothesis. And, as already stated, the origin of stars cannot be explained by the Big Bang because of the reasons mentioned above. It’s one thing to say that stars may decay and die into random gas clouds, but it is totally different to say that gas clouds form into stars.

    Even the father of Chaos theory admitted that the “mechanisms” existing in the non-living world allow for only very rudimentary levels of order to arise spontaneously (by chance), but not the kind or level of order we find in the structures of DNA, RNA, and proteins. Yes, individual amino acids have been shown to come into existence by chance but not protein molecules which require that the various amino acids be in a precise sequence just like the letters found in a sentence.

    Some things don’t need experiment or scientific proof. In law there is a dictum called prima facie evidence. It means “evidence that speaks for itself.”

    An example of a true prima facie would be if you discovered an elaborate sand castle on the beach. You don’t have to experiment to know that it came by design and not by the chance forces of wind and water.

    If you discovered a romantic letter or message written in the sand, you don’t have to experiment to know that it was by design and not because a stick randomly carried by wind put it there. You naturally assume that an intelligent and rational being was responsible.

    It’s interesting that Carl Sagan would have acknowledged sequential radio signals in space as evidence of intelligent life sending them, but he wouldn’t acknowledge the sequential structure of molecules in DNA (the genetic code) as evidence of an intelligent Cause. Read my popular Internet article, HOW DID MY DNA MAKE ME.

    I encourage all to read my popular Internet articles:

    NATURAL LIMITS TO EVOLUTION
    HOW FORENSIC SCIENCE REFUTES ATHEISM

    Visit my latest Internet site: THE SCIENCE SUPPORTING CREATION (This site answers many arguments, both old and new, that have been used by evolutionists to support their theory)

    Author of popular Internet article, TRADITIONAL DOCTRINE OF HELL EVOLVED FROM GREEK ROOTS

    *I have given successful lectures (with question and answer period afterwards) defending creation before evolutionist science faculty and students at various colleges and universities. I’ve been privileged to be recognized in the 24th edition of Marquis “Who’s Who in The East” for my writings on religion and science.

  9. BibhutibhusanPatel | December 8, 2021 at 11:54 pm | Reply

    AGC 114905 galaxy has little dark matter means has little DMark Energy Entanglement and total interaction is simply relativistic or even little gravitational interaction.

  10. BibhutibhusanPatel | December 9, 2021 at 12:23 am | Reply

    AGC 114905 galaxy has little dark matter means has little DMark Energy Entanglement and total interaction is simply relativistic or even little gravitational interaction.

    This is not possible that a Galaxy in contact can have zero Dark Matter/Dark Energy.Or in other words zero entanglement.Here only possible alternative that can present must be rare is AGC 114905 connected with our milkyway through Gravitation.

  11. Douglas W Lipp | March 18, 2023 at 5:28 am | Reply

    See my YouTube presentation that explains Dark Matter as well. Look up the Douglas w Lipp channel in the YouTube search bar. Many questions will be answered. A must for Physicists and Cosmologist must see Part ii as well. Leave a comment please.

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