A trail of dark-matter-free galaxies from a bullet-dwarf collision.

ABSTRACT: The ultra-diffuse galaxies DF2 and DF4 in the NGC 1052 group share several unusual properties: they both have large sizes¹, rich populations of overluminous and large globular clusters^2-6, and very low velocity dispersions that indicate little or no dark matter^7-10. It has been suggested that these galaxies were formed in the aftermath of high-velocity collisions of gas-rich galaxies^11-13, events that resemble the collision that created the bullet cluster¹⁴ but on much smaller scales. The gas separates from the dark matter in the collision and subsequent star formation leads to the formation of one or more dark-matter-free galaxies¹². Here we show that the present-day line-of-sight distances and radial velocities of DF2 and

SUBMITTER: van Dokkum P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9117144 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature