This image shows the location of Cloud-9, 14 million light-years from Earth.

Science: NASA, ESA, VLA, Gagandeep Anand (STScI), Alejandro Benitez-Llambay (University of Milano-Bicocca). Image processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)/NASA

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Science: NASA, ESA, VLA, Gagandeep Anand (STScI), Alejandro Benitez-Llambay (University of Milano-Bicocca). Image processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)/NASA

Cloud 9 is a failed galaxy. It is a clump of dark matter that never formed a star, called a dark matter halo.

But this failure could hold the key to a mystery almost as old as the universe itself: dark matter.

Scientists don’t know what dark matter is, but Cloud 9 could provide new clues. Three researchers discuss this new discovery and why it may be the missing piece in the story of the formation of the universe.

Check out our episode with astrophysicist Jorge Moreno. mysterious great attractor and our Summer series about space.

Have a scientific question you’d like answered? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.

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This episode was produced by Rachel Carlson. Edited by Rebecca Ramirez. Tyler Jones confirmed the facts. The audio engineer was Robert Rodriguez.