Researchers Discovered Dark Galaxies in Direction of Cetus Constellation

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) on 29 May 2013 announced that astronomers in Chile discovered 15 new dark galaxies. The dark galaxies were discovered by making use of the Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array (ALMA) telescope. There were 15 unknown dark galaxies that were buried in the cosmic dust. The astronomers observed a field named Subaru/XMM-Newtown Deep Survey Field in direction of the Cetus constellation.

Dark galaxies are gas-rich, small galaxies which are said to be from the times of early universe. Dark galaxies are also said to be the early phase of galaxy formation. The observations from ALMA disclosed that around 80 percent of unidentifiable millimeter wave signals from universe are emitted from these galaxies.

The team of researchers led by Bunyo Hatsukade and Kouji Ohta from Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University made use of the sensitivity as well as high resolving power of ALMA in order to precisely find out the location of these galaxies which are rich in fine solid particles. The team measured the number of density of these galaxies. The research showed that the discovered galaxies are faint but are rich in dust.

Professor Kouji Ota explained that the research was a big step in disclosing the big picture of evolution of the galaxy.

The European Southern Observatory is supported by various countries which include Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, Czech Republic, Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, France, Finland, Britain and Brazil.