An unique ultra-faint dwarf galaxy has actually been discovered in the external fringes of the Andromeda Galaxy thanks to the sharp eyes of an amateur astronomer taking a look at archival data from the United States Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) and processed by the Community Science and Data Center (CSDC). Follow-up by professional astronomers using the International Gemini Observatory revealed that the dwarf galaxy– Pegasus V– contains really few heavier aspects and is most likely to be a fossil of the very first galaxies.
Dr. Michelle Collins, an astronomer at the University of Surrey and lead author of the paper announcing this discovery said:.
” We have discovered a brand-new, very faint galaxy whose stars formed extremely early in the history of deep space. This discovery marks the very first time a galaxy this faint has actually been found around Andromeda using a huge survey that wasnt specifically created for the job.”.
Named Pegasus V, the dwarf galaxy lies on the outskirts of the Andromeda galaxy and looks like simply a couple of sparse stars hidden in the sky.
The discovery was made in collaboration with NSF NOIRLab and the International Gemini Observatory.
Emily Charles, a PhD trainee at the University of Surrey who was likewise included in the research study stated:.
” The difficulty with these very faint galaxies is that they have extremely few of the bright stars which we generally use to identify them and determine their ranges. Geminis large 8.1-meter mirror enabled us to discover faint, old stars which enabled and allowed us to both to measure the distance to Pegasus V and to identify that its excellent population is extremely old.”.
More astronomical facilities are looking into looking into faint galaxies in the future.
For more on this discovery, see Unusual Fossil Galaxy Discovered on Outskirts of Andromeda.
Reference: “Pegasus V– a newly discovered ultra-faint dwarf galaxy on the borders of Andromeda” by Michelle L. M. Collins, Emily J. E. Charles, David Martínez-Delgado, Matteo Monelli, Noushin Karim, Giuseppe Donatiello, Erik J. Tollerud, Walter Boschin, 27 July 2022, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.DOI: 10.1093/ mnrasl/slac063arXiv:2204.09068.
An unique ultra-faint dwarf galaxy has actually been discovered in the external fringes of the Andromeda Galaxy thanks to the sharp eyes of an amateur astronomer analyzing archival data from the United States Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) and processed by the Community Science and Data Center (CSDC). Follow-up by expert astronomers utilizing the International Gemini Observatory revealed that the dwarf galaxy– Pegasus V– contains extremely couple of much heavier aspects and is likely to be a fossil of the first galaxies. Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/ AURA, Acknowledgment: Image processing: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSFs NOIRLab), M. Zamani (NSFs NOIRLab) & & D. de Martin (NSFs NOIRLab).
New fossil galaxy discovery could answer essential questions about the history of the universe.
An ultra-faint dwarf galaxy, believed to be a “fossil” of among the very first ever galaxies, has actually been found by stellar archeologists at the University of Surrey in the UK.
The fossil was exposed by means of a methodical visual search of legacy survey images utilizing the Mayall 4-meter telescope, led by Dr. David Martinez Delgado. It could teach astrophysicists about how galaxies form and validate their understanding of cosmology and dark matter.