J0613+52 is massive and exhibits motion similar to the galaxy that contains Earth, but it is entirely just a hollow ghost.
A research team led by astrophysicist Karen O’Neil from the Green Bank Observatory (USA) had to color the J0613+52 galaxy to describe its structure and rotation, as in reality, it is a completely transparent shadow.
The authors believe that this peculiar object is expanding our understanding of what constitutes the primordial universe.
The eerie J0613+52 galaxy in a colored photo – (Image: GREEN BANK OBSERVATORY).
The only unsettling thing is that inside this galaxy… there is nothing. Like in a ghost movie: You see the bed sinking under the weight of a person, but you don’t see anyone lying on it.
Normal spiral galaxies like the Milky Way are characterized by a large, heavy star disk, which forms the band of light that stretches across the sky.
J0613+52 appears to have no stars! However, it is massive and behaves like a galaxy, so it is still considered a galaxy.
An actual photo of the region of space containing J0613+52, completely empty! – (Image: GREEN BANK OBSERVATORY).
Analysis shows that J0613+52 may be primarily composed of primordial gas strands, heavy yet invisible. It is also possible that it has some stars, but we cannot see them.
The accidental discovery of the “eerie galaxy” came from the Green Bank Observatory’s instruments mistakenly pointing in the wrong direction and finding something strange.
In that area, there is a lot of hydrogen gas, at levels expected from a spiral galaxy. The Doppler shift of radio waves related to the rotation has also been recorded. Nevertheless, there is absolutely nothing visible, like a ghost controlling everything.
Data from Green Bank also suggests that this object could be a “time machine” taking us back to the dawn of the universe.
J0613+52 may represent the first group of galaxies formed after the Big Bang that birthed the universe. It appears like a well-preserved fossil, isolated, undisturbed, and has not undergone any gravitational interactions for 13.8 billion years since the universe’s inception.
