Ethan Nadler, a computational astrophysicist at UC San Diego, has conducted groundbreaking research on the existence of star-free dark matter haloes, proposing new thresholds for star formation.

Nadler's findings reveal that haloes as small as 1 million solar masses could exist in the current universe without forming stars, challenging previous beliefs that this threshold was between 100 million to 1 billion solar masses.

Additionally, his research indicates that star formation can occur in haloes down to 10 million solar masses, facilitated by molecular hydrogen cooling.

This reconsideration of hydrogen cooling processes allows for the possibility of star formation in smaller haloes than earlier estimates suggested.

New research suggests that dark matter haloes could exist without galaxies, akin to hollow Easter Eggs moving through space.

Even if these starless haloes exist, they could still exert gravitational influence, impacting the structure and dynamics of the universe.

Dark matter is believed to constitute five times more mass than ordinary matter in the universe, yet it remains nearly invisible due to its weak interactions with light and matter.

Detecting these haloes poses challenges due to their lack of visible galaxies, necessitating reliance on gravitational effects to infer their presence.

Gravitational lensing, a phenomenon described by Einstein's theory of general relativity, could provide evidence for these dark haloes by revealing unexplained lensing effects.

Upcoming data from the Rubin Observatory and existing observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will provide opportunities to test these predictions and explore the existence of dark halos.

With hopes for confirmation within the decade, data from these observatories may facilitate the detection of these elusive haloes.

The existence or absence of these haloes has significant implications for dark matter models and our understanding of galaxy formation, potentially challenging existing cosmological theories.