Astronomers Discover Never-Before-Seen Monster Yeti Galaxy Hiding In Cosmic Clouds

A team of astronomers stumbled upon a never-before-seen monster galaxy that they referred to as a cosmic Yeti. The discovery marks the first evidence of monster galaxies, which the scientific community previously regarded as myths.

Astronomers from the U.S. and Australia made a surprising discovery after they came across traces of an unknown galaxy. After carrying out further observations, they discovered that the traces belonged to a massive galaxy that was hiding behind cosmic clouds of dust.

The team was able to spot the monster galaxy using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observatory in Chile. At first, the astronomers saw a faint blob of light before discovering that it was produced by an unknown galaxy.

“It was very mysterious,” lead researcher Christina Williams of the University of Arizona said in a statement. “The light seemed not to be linked to any known galaxy at all. When I saw this galaxy was invisible at any other wavelength, I got really excited, because it meant that it was probably really far away and hidden by clouds of dust."

According to the astronomers, the galaxy was so far away that it took the faint light they spotted about 12.5 billion years to reach Earth. This led the astronomers to believe that the monster galaxy may have formed during the early years of the universe.

After observing the newly discovered galaxy, the astronomers began to get an idea of just how massive it is. Although it has almost the same number of stars as Milky Way, the astronomers noted that the galaxy is much more active.

"We figured out that the galaxy is actually a massive monster galaxy with as many stars as our Milky Way but brimming with activity, forming new stars at 100 times the rate of our own galaxy,” Ivo Labbe of the Swinburne University of Technology in Australia stated.

For the astronomers, their discovery is somewhat similar to obtaining photographic evidence showing the existence of the Yeti or Abominable Snowman. Since monster galaxies are widely considered as folklore, their findings could pioneer future discoveries on similar galaxies in the universe.

“These otherwise hidden galaxies are truly intriguing; it makes you wonder if this is just the tip of the iceberg, with a whole new type of galaxy population just waiting to be discovered,” Kate Whitaker of the University of Massachusetts Amherst said.

The findings of the researchers were presented in a new study published in The Astrophysical Journal.