Astronomers Find Hydrogen-Rich Object With No Detectable Starlight

Astronomers have found a vast hydrogen reservoir in an object called AGC 322753.

It contains roughly 2 billion times the Sun’s mass in neutral hydrogen, according to radio observations made with FAST and Arecibo.

Hydrogen is potential material for making stars, but deep images show no detectable starlight from the object.

The radio signal suggests the gas may be rotating in a disk.

That combination makes AGC 322753 a possible dark galaxy, though the observations do not confirm that it is one.

The findings point to an object with abundant star-forming material but no visible stars, and no next step is specified.