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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Mysterious cosmic thief is stealing a dwarf galaxy’s gas

For the first time, scientists detect an isolated galaxy that is losing clouds of interstellar gas.
MeerKAT radio telescope observation of the neutral hydrogen gas (transparent & blue) of WLM, super imposed on its optical image.

Hydrogen clouds (blue and translucent) are seen in the wake of the WLM galaxy as it moves through space. Credit: Yang et al./Observatoire de Paris–PSL/CNRS/ESO/NOAO/MeerKAT

A small, isolated galaxy is slowly being stripped of the gas between its stars, although there are no visible objects nearby that could be stealing it1.

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Nature 605, 398 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-01276-z

References

  1. Yang, Y. et al. Astron. Astrophys. 660, L11 (2022).

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