国际研究团队首次在银河系外发现了源自球状星团的恒星流1。这条微弱的星条环绕着超弥散星系UGC 9050-Dw1，距离地球约1.15亿光年1。研究人员通过分析恒星流的形状重建了宿主星系的引力场，从而估计出该星系周围的暗物质数量及其分布情况1。
该研究采用了数千次计算机模拟1，利用NASA哈勃太空望远镜的档案观测数据进行分析1。这一发现为研究宇宙暗物质提供了新方法，而暗物质占宇宙所有物质的约85%1。西北大学的Tjitske Starkenburg是论文的共同作者1。相关论文已于2026年8月12日发表在《自然》杂志上1。
欧洲航天局的Euclid任务和NASA的南希·格蕾丝·罗曼太空望远镜可能发现更多类似的恒星流1。其中罗曼太空望远镜的观测面积是哈勃的100倍1。
An international research team has discovered the first known stellar stream from a globular cluster outside the Milky Way, orbiting the ultra-diffuse galaxy UGC 9050-Dw1 located approximately 115 million light-years from Earth 1. By analyzing the shape and structure of this faint ribbon of stars, the researchers reconstructed the gravitational field of the host galaxy, enabling them to estimate both the quantity and distribution of dark matter surrounding it 1.
Dark matter comprises roughly 85 percent of all matter in the universe 1. The team conducted thousands of computer simulations to map how the stellar stream's configuration reveals the underlying dark matter distribution, offering a novel method for studying this invisible cosmic component 1. The findings were published on August 12, 2026, in the journal Nature, with Northwestern University's Tjitske Starkenburg among the paper's co-authors 1. The research drew on archival observational data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope 1.
The discovery suggests that future missions may uncover additional stellar streams. Both the European Space Agency's Euclid mission and NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope could potentially identify more such structures 1. The Roman telescope possesses an observational area 100 times larger than Hubble's 1, positioning it as a powerful tool for expanding this emerging field of dark matter investigation.
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