To have survived this previous encounter, astronomers have suggested that it is embedded inside a massive dark matter halo.[6] The fact that it survived this previous encounter means that it is likely to be much more massive than previously thought, and may be a candidate for being a dark galaxy.[7] In this scenario it would be a failed dwarf galaxy, with the ingredients to form a stellar galaxy, but few if any detectable stars.[8] However, chemical abundance measurements from the Hubble Space Telescope argue against this hypothesis; these measurements show that the Smith Cloud has an average metallicity of one half of the solar value, indicating that its gas originates in the Galaxy, not from an extragalactic source.[9] The cloud's orbit and metallicity are both consistent with an origin in the outer disk of the Milky Way.