Overview
- Peer-reviewed studies published October 9 in Nature Astronomy and MNRAS report the smallest dark object ever observed.
- Scientists inferred the invisible mass solely from a tiny perturbation within a larger gravitational-lensing pattern.
- The detection combined a global very long baseline interferometry network, including the Green Bank Telescope, the VLBA and the EVN.
- The object is estimated at roughly one million solar masses and is about 100 times smaller than prior lensing-detected structures.
- Researchers say it could be a dark-matter clump or a compact inactive dwarf galaxy, and separate JWST-flagged ‘dark star’ candidates remain provisional after ALMA found oxygen in at least one source.