A starless cloud of dark matter and gas — the kind the young universe was supposed to leave behind

With the giant FAST radio telescope, astronomers have found J1351+0039: a lone cloud of hydrogen gas with no stars, holding about half a million suns of gas but some 130 million in total mass — the rest dark matter. It matches a specific prediction of cosmology, a “RELHIC”: a starless dark galaxy the early universe’s radiation should have left behind. One of the strongest isolated candidates yet, though not yet confirmed.

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