Hubble reveals odd 'see through' galaxy that lacks dark matter 'glue'

When NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is online and working it can produce some shocking images of the cosmos, and this is no exception.

The image seen above taken by Hubble is of NGC 1052-DF2, or DF2. This galaxy, in particular, continues to perplex astronomers as estimates show that it lacks any dark matter, which is an "invisible form of matter that provides the gravitational glue to hold galaxies together" according to NASA. The team behind the discovery has published their findings in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The researchers found that DF2 is actually 72 million light-years which is more than most astronomers previously estimated at 42 million light-years. Pieter van Dokkum of Yale University says that DF2 is a cosmic cotton ball that is a "see-through galaxy" that features stars spread out. The diameter of DF2 is almost as large as our galaxy, but DF2 only contains 1/200th of the amount of stars as the Milky Way.

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Dokkum explained, "For almost every galaxy we look at, we say that we can't see most of the mass because it's dark matter. What you see is only the tip of the iceberg with Hubble. But in this case, what you see is what you get. Hubble really shows the entire thing. That's it. It's not just the tip of the iceberg, it's the whole iceberg."