Figure 1: A color image made with B, R, and i-band
images from the Subaru Telescope. A small region of 6 x 6 arcmin is cut
out from large Coma Cluster images. Yellow circles show two of the 47
dark galaxies discovered last year, and green circles are the ones
discovered in this new study. Image without the labels is here, image without the labels and circles is here. (Credit: NAOJ)
Figure 2: A 2.9 x 2.9 degree field-of-view sky image of the Coma Cluster.
(Left) An image from the Digitized Sky Survey (from a digitized photo-plate). Eighteen white squares are the coverage by the Subaru Telescope with the R-band filter. Red and yellow parts were observed in multiple bands with Subaru, which enabled the study of galaxy colors. The light blue region is the area in Figure 1.
(Right) The distribution of the newly found dark galaxies. Blue circles indicate the ones of particularly large sizes (roughly the size of the Milky Way galaxy even though the total light is only 1/1,000 of the Milky Way). (Credit: NAOJ/Stony Brook University)
A group of researchers from the Stony Brook University (the State
University of New York) and the National Astronomical Observatory of
Japan has discovered 854 "ultra dark galaxies" in the Coma Cluster by
analyzing archival data from the Subaru Telescope. The discovery of 47
such mysterious dark galaxies was a surprising find in 2014, and the new
discovery of more than 800 suggests galaxy clusters as the key
environment for the evolution of these mysterious dark galaxies. "Not
only these galaxies appear very diffuse," said Jin Koda, principal
investigator of the study, "but they are very likely enveloped by
something very massive."
These galaxies appear very diffuse and remarkably extended as seen by
the light of the stars they contain. Many are similar in size to the
Milky Way, but have only 1/1,000 of stars that our galaxy does (Figure
1). The stellar population within such fluffy extended galaxies is
subject to rapid disruption due to a strong tidal force detected within
the cluster. Something invisible must be protecting the fragile star
systems of these galaxies, something with a high mass. That "something"
is very likely an excessive amount of dark matter. The component of
visible matter, such as stars, is calculated to contribute only 1% or
less to the total mass of each galaxy. The rest – dark matter – accounts
for more than 99%.
The Subaru Telescope, with its large-aperture and wide-field camera,
used under excellent seeing conditions, revealed that these dark
galaxies contain old stellar populations and shows a spatial
distribution similar to those of other brighter galaxies in the Coma
Cluster (Figure 2). That suggests they have been a long-lived population
of galaxies within the cluster. The amount of visible matter they
contain, less than 1%, is extremely low compared to the average fraction
within the universe.
Why are these galaxies dark? Somehow, they lost gas needed to create
new stars during or after their largely unknown formation process
billions of years ago. From their preferential presence within the
cluster, it’s likely that the cluster environment played a key role in
the loss of gas, which affects star formation within the galaxy. Several
loss mechanisms are possible, including ram-pressure stripping by
intra-cluster gas, gravitational interactions with other galaxies within
the cluster, and gas outflows due to simultaneous supernova explosions
triggered, e.g., by the ram pressure or gravitational encounters.
These dark galaxies may offer another insight into the model of
galaxy formation. However, according to Dr. Jin Koda more work needs to
be done to understand them and their place in the standard picture of
galaxy formation. "Follow-up spectroscopic observations in the future
may reveal the history of star formation in these dark galaxies," he
said.
In addition to research into galaxies’ stellar populations, further
investigation of the large dark matter component of the galaxies is
essential. Dark matter is invisible, but measurements of stellar motions
may expose the distribution of dark matter in these galaxies. Such a
dream measurement may not be immediately possible, because they are so
faint. It is difficult to measure the detailed motions of stars, even
with the Subaru Telescope. The construction of Thirty Meter Telescope
(TMT) by an international partnership of institutions, including the
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan may well reveal the mystery
of the dark galaxies in near future.
The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan has maintained all the
data obtained with the Subaru Telescope since its very first light
observations 16 years ago (in 1999). All archive data are made available
to the community one and half years from the night of the observation.
This new discovery is made possible thanks to the availability of
abundant archival Subaru data. Re-analyses of archival data have often
resulted in new discoveries and publications. The Subaru data archive
continuously offers "treasure hunting" opportunities
This discovery will be published on June 24, 2015 in the
Astrophysical Journal Letters by the American Astronomical Society (Koda
et al. 2015, "Approximately A Thousand Ultra Diffuse Galaxies in the
Coma cluster"). The preprint is available here.
Team members
- Jin Koda (Stony Brook University)
- Masafumi Yagi (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan/Hosei University)
- Hitomi Yamanoi (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan)
- Yutaka Komiyama (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan/SOKENDAI - the Graduate University for Advanced Studies)
Source: Subaru Telescope
