For some time, scientists have pondered a peculiar question: Can galaxies exist without an outer halo of dark matter? But new research flips this question around, investigating whether some dark matter haloes could exist without galaxies in their centers — like hollow Easter Eggs roaming the cosmos.
Galaxies and dark matter are so connected in theory because galaxies are thought to form as the result of gas and dust pouring into wells in space, and these wells are created by the gravitational influence of dark matter clumps. As mass gathers in those wells, stars are formed. This continuously "grows" a galaxy and, after millions of years, that galaxy ends up sitting in a dark matter bubble.
