FAST finds starless hydrogen cloud — a candidate dark galaxy

Astronomers using China's FAST radio telescope found a compact cloud of neutral hydrogen with no visible stars or galaxy around it. With about 500,000 solar masses of gas, it is one of the strongest candidates yet for an isolated dark galaxy. The paper was posted to arXiv on Sept. 24.

• The cloud holds about 500,000 solar masses of neutral hydrogen
• No visible stars or galaxy were found nearby
• Observations were made with China's FAST radio telescope
• The preprint was posted to arXiv on Sept. 24