{"id":229092,"date":"2026-01-15T13:02:50","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T19:02:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/nasas-hubble-examines-cloud-9-first-of-new-type-of-object"},"modified":"2026-01-15T13:02:50","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T19:02:50","slug":"nasas-hubble-examines-cloud-9-first-of-new-type-of-object","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/nasas-hubble-examines-cloud-9-first-of-new-type-of-object","title":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s Hubble Examines Cloud-9, First of New Type of Object"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/nasas-hubble-examines-cloud-9-first-of-new-type-of-object.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A team using NASA\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/mission\/hubble\/\">Hubble Space Telescope<\/a> has uncovered a new type of astronomical object \u2014 a starless, gas-rich, <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/mission\/hubble\/science\/science-behind-the-discoveries\/hubble-dark-matter\/\">dark-matter<\/a> cloud considered a \u201crelic\u201d or remnant of early galaxy formation. Nicknamed \u201cCloud-9,\u201d this is the first confirmed detection of such an object in the universe \u2014 a finding that furthers the understanding of galaxy formation, the early universe, and the nature of dark matter itself.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a tale of a failed galaxy,\u201d said the program\u2019s principal investigator, Alejandro Benitez-Llambay of the Milano-Bicocca University in Milan, Italy. \u201cIn science, we usually learn more from the failures than from the successes. In this case, seeing no stars is what proves the theory right. It tells us that we have found in the local universe a primordial building block of a galaxy that hasn\u2019t formed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/ui.adsabs.harvard.edu\/abs\/2025ApJ\u2026993L\u202655A\/abstract\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">results<\/a>, published in <a href=\"https:\/\/iopscience.iop.org\/journal\/2041-8205\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">The Astrophysical Journal Letters<\/a>, were presented at a press conference Monday at the <a href=\"https:\/\/aas.org\/meetings\/aas247\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">247th meeting of the American Astronomical Society<\/a> in Phoenix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A team using NASA\u2019s Hubble Space Telescope has uncovered a new type of astronomical object \u2014 a starless, gas-rich, dark-matter cloud considered a \u201crelic\u201d or remnant of early galaxy formation. Nicknamed \u201cCloud-9,\u201d this is the first confirmed detection of such an object in the universe \u2014 a finding that furthers the understanding of galaxy formation, [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":556,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-229092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cosmology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/556"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229092\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}