Donatiello II is one of three freshly discovered galaxies that were so challenging to spot that they were all missed by an algorithm designed to browse astronomical information for potential galaxy candidates. NGC 253 is the dominant galaxy in the Sculptor Group of galaxies and it resides about 13 million light-years from Earth. Based on their own independent search, a group led by Burçin Mutlu-Pakdil utilized Hubble to get long-exposure images of a number of faint galaxies, consisting of Donatiello II. With the Hubble images, they were able to verify their target galaxies association with NGC 253– thus supplying both an independent verification of Donatiellos discovery, and this brand-new Picture of the Week.
Hubble Space Telescope image of the newly found dwarf galaxy Donatiello II, nestled amongst a smattering of remote stars and a lot more far-off galaxies. Credit: ESA/Hubble & & NASA, B. Mutlu-Pakdil, Acknowledgment: G. Donatiello
Right in the middle of this image, nestled amongst a smattering of remote stars and a lot more far-off galaxies, lies the newly found dwarf galaxy known as Donatiello II. You are in excellent company if you can not rather distinguish the clump of faint stars that is all we can see of Donatiello II in this image. Donatiello II is among three freshly discovered galaxies that were so difficult to find that they were all missed by an algorithm created to search astronomical information for possible galaxy candidates. Even the very best algorithms have their constraints when it concerns differentiating very faint galaxies from specific stars and background sound. In these most challenging identification cases, discovery has actually to be done the old-fashioned way– by a dedicated human trawling through the data themselves..
That is when the skilled amateur astronomer Giuseppe Donatiello stepped in. He laboriously processed and examined chunks of the DES information, and made his discovery– three very faint galaxies, now called Donatiello II, III, and IV respectively.
NGC 253 is one of brightest spiral galaxies in the night sky, easily noticeable with little telescopes, and it is composed of thousands of young, blue stars. The image shows the sharp “eye” of Hubbles Advanced Camera for Surveys, which is able to reveal specific stars. NGC 253 is the dominant galaxy in the Sculptor Group of galaxies and it lives about 13 million light-years from Earth.
This image comes from an observing program from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Based on their own independent search, a group led by Burçin Mutlu-Pakdil utilized Hubble to get long-exposure images of several faint galaxies, including Donatiello II. With the Hubble images, they had the ability to validate their target galaxies association with NGC 253– therefore offering both an independent confirmation of Donatiellos discovery, and this brand-new Picture of the Week.