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Cloud-9

Cloud-9
Cloud-9 This image shows a new type of astronomical object: a starless, gas-rich, dark-matter cloud considered a relic or remnant of early galaxy formation. Nicknamed "Cloud-9," this newly discovered object is 14 million light-years from Earth. The image combines visible observations by the Hubble Space Telescope and radio observations from the Very Large Array. Science: NASA, ESA, VLA, Gagandeep Anand (STScI), Alejandro Benitez-Llambay (University of Milano-Bicocca); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

From NASA: "The diffuse magenta represents radio data from the ground-based Very Large Array, indicating the presence of the cloud. The dashed circle marks the peak of radio emission, which is where researchers focused their search for stars. Follow-up observations by the Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys found no stars within the cloud. The few objects that appear within its boundaries are background galaxies. Before the Hubble observations, scientists could argue that Cloud-9 is a faint dwarf galaxy whose stars could not be seen with ground-based telescopes due to the lack of sensitivity. Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys shows that, in reality, the failed galaxy contains no stars."

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