May 7, 2009--Though they might not look like much, the blobs in this artist's concept are "monster galaxies," according to a team of researchers with Japan's Nobeyama Radio Observatory.

These galaxies may form new stars a thousand times as fast as the Milky Way galaxy does, and single monster galaxies have been seen before. But by using the Atacama Submillimeter Telescope Experiment in Chile to analyze the constellation of Aquarius, the researchers found a cluster of the monster galaxies for the first time.

It's been theorized that higher densities of dark matter are often correlated with very active star formation--as in these monster galaxies. The theory was apparently borne out this time: The monster-galaxy cluster was found by looking at an area where dark matter emissions appeared to be very high.