A Mysterious Dark Matter Galaxy

www.dailygalaxy.com...

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/8711a94d147a.jpg[/atsimg]

Quote from source:
NASA Astronomers have dubbed mysterious NGC 1132 a "fossil group" because it contains an enormous amount of dark matter, comparable to the dark matter found in an entire group of galaxies. Also, the large amount of hot gas detected by Chandra is usually found for groups of galaxies, rather than a single galaxy.

The origin of such fossil-group systems remains a puzzle. They may be the end products of the complete merging of groups of galaxies. Or, they may be very rare objects that formed in a region or period of time where the growth of moderate-sized galaxies was somehow suppressed, and only one large galaxy formed.

This image of the elliptical galaxy NGC 1132 and its surrounding region combines data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope. The blue/purple in the image is the x-ray glow from hot, diffuse gas detected by Chandra. Hubble's data reveal a giant foreground elliptical galaxy, plus numerous dwarf galaxies in its neighborhood, and many much more distant galaxies in the background.

Elliptical galaxies are smooth and featureless. Containing hundreds of millions to trillions of stars, they range from nearly spherical to very elongated shapes. Their overall yellowish color comes from the aging stars. Because elliptical galaxies do not contain much cool gas, they can no longer make large numbers of new stars.

Cool picture and glad to see we are finding dark matter galaxies. I thought this was interesting and the picture is worth looking at itself.

Any thoughts?

Pred...

No clue but i still little hesitant bout what dark matter is, is it like the opposite of matter...

Looks cool though wonder what the planets there look like

pretty sure the opposite of matter is antimatter. Dark matter is stuff we can measure but can't find from what I understand. Its like knowing there is an object by sensing gravity but not seeing it. Google it, Im sure the internet knows.