Cosmic dust clouds obscure hidden 'empty space' galaxies
23 September 2021
/Deborah Devis
Discovery of two galaxies leaves astronomers wondering how many more might exist behind clouds of space dust.
Credit: pixelparticle / Getty Images.
In a case of celestial serendipity, an international team of researchers has discovered two hidden galaxies in empty space – the area devoid of almost anything at all – beaming out from behind huge clouds of space dust. One of them represents the most distant dust-obscured galaxies known to date.
The discovery suggests that our current census of our local universe is still incomplete.
“These new galaxies were missed not because they are extremely rare, but only because they are completely dust-obscured,” explains Yoshinobu Fudamoto from Waseda University and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.
The signals were discovered with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), when researchers were attempting to observe different targets.
More:
https://cosmosmagazine.com/news/cosmic-dust-clouds-obscure-hidden-empty-space-galaxies/
