The world of astrophysicists is baffled after the discovery of an “invisible” galaxy called “Nube” that could change scientists’ understanding of the universe.

Astronomers have discovered a dwarf galaxy that is almost invisible and cannot be explained by our current understanding of the universe.

The faint, mysterious formation – dubbed Nube – is unique because of its high levels of dark matter and low mass at its centre.

These unusual features mean that Nobi's stars are so spread out that the galaxy emits almost no light, allowing it to evade detection for years.

The galaxy is ten times fainter than most other galaxies of the same size.

“With our current knowledge, we do not understand how a galaxy with such extreme properties could exist,” said Mireya Montes, lead author of the study and an astrophysicist at the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands.

Scientists believe that the galaxy is 300 million light-years away from the Milky Way, but more research is needed to determine its exact location.

It was discovered by researchers at the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands (IAC) and the University of La Laguna (ULL).

Nube, which means cloud in Spanish, was named for its appearance as an almost dark galaxy with a small amount of mass at its center.

Researchers involved in the study said that finding the galaxy is important because its dim brightness, caused by the presence of large amounts of dark matter, allowed it to evade detection.

Dark matter is the absence of light or energy, making it completely invisible, so conventional sensors and detectors can't find it.

The researchers analyzed data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and noticed inconsistencies that made them take a closer look at the results.

They took multicolor, very deep images of the anomaly using the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) and Gran Telescopio Canaria (GTC) and upon discovering the dwarf galaxy, wondered how it held together when there was such a small amount of mass. In its center.

Mass normally acts as a gravitational force to keep stars in place, but the galaxy's existence despite its limited mass contradicts astronomers' previous assertions that dark matter needs high levels of mass to exist.

“One attractive possibility is that Nube's unusual properties show us that the particles that make up dark matter have a very small mass,” said study co-author Ignacio Trujillo, an astrophysicist at the Institute of Astrophysics in the Canary Islands. .

He added that if dark matter was composed of a small mass, “it would be one of the most beautiful demonstrations of nature, uniting the world of the smaller with the world of the larger.”

This is just one possibility, and the researchers involved in the study said that more research remains to be done, but their findings could change the way scientists look at dark matter and the universe.

“We have known for some time that the current model of cold dark matter does not fully explain certain properties of the galaxies we see,” said Dr. Mireya Montes, lead author of the study and a researcher at IAC and UL. dailymail.com.

She said that this type of galaxy could help researchers discover more information about dark matter, and while they cannot fully explain what they know now, they are forced to resort to questioning the properties of dark matter.

“I think the most obvious outcome is to test what we already know and gradually improve it in order to better understand our world,” Montes said, adding: “But the potential is huge!”