Astronomers have long speculated about the presence of dark matter in the Milky Way because of the presence of strange ripples from hydrogen gas apparently caused by some intense intergalactic force from an invisible dwarf galaxy nearby.

Now, scientists believe they've found "Galaxy X".

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This invisible dark matter emanating from a dwarf galaxy in the Milky Way just received observational confirmation of its presence, according to researchers from Rochester Institute of Technology, New York.

Astronomers from RIT analyzed near-infrared data from the European Southern Observatory's VISTA telescope and discovered four young stars apparently formed in a cluster in the constellation, Norma.

According to astronomer Sukanya Chakrabarti, these stars are apparently 300,000 light years beyond the Milky Way galaxy's outer disk. Chakrabarti confirms these dwarf stars aren't part of the Milky Way galaxy since the disk of the Milky Way ends at 48,000 light years.

These young stars are believed to emit the signature of Galaxy X, which  is difficult to observe due to obscuring dust from the Milky Way galaxy and also because the majority of its mass is composed of invisible dark matter.

Chakrabarti made this discovery in 2009 based on the ripples observed from the Milky Way's outer disk. Using VISTA telescope's infrared capability, she and her team were able to observe unexplored regions of our galaxy's disk plane devoid of visible light.

To date, there's still no empirical evidence of dark matter, which is believed to comprise most of the matter found in the universe.

Scientists have determined the existence of dark matter based on its effects on visible matter and the structure of the universe.

This study was published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

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