Partnum, A Whole New Galaxy

A Whole New Galaxy

Scientists have found what seems to be an exceedingly small galaxy in orbit around our own Milky. Hydrus 1,is located about 90,000 light-years from Earth, between two other satellites of our galaxy, the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds (SMC and LMC).

A paper describing the findings has been submitted to the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society for publication. Research was led by Sergey Koposov from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pennsylvania.

“We report the discovery of a nearby dwarf galaxy in the constellation of Hydrus, between the Large and the Small Magellanic Clouds,”

Hydrus 1 was found using the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) on the Blanco Telescope in Chile.

It is what is known as a dwarf galaxy, described as being ultra-faint. Hydrus 1 is about 326 light-years across, which is small compared to our Milky Way galaxy, which is 100,000 light-years across. It’s so small that it might actually be a globular cluster, a loose collection of stars.

This new discovery will help astronomers increase their understanding of the surroundings of our Milky Way galaxy.

Hydrus 1 was discovered within the Magellanic Bridge, a stream of gas that links both the SMC and the LMC. Being found in the Hydrus constellation.

The researchers have found that Hydrus 1 has stars that are relatively metal-poor, which is similar to other suspected dwarf galaxies like this. Galaxies are described as “dwarfs” if they have about 100 million to a few billion stars, much less than the up to 400 billion or so stars in our own galaxy.

The team also noted that the galaxy is rotating, making it the “first rotating ultra-faint dwarf galaxy” ever detected, they wrote in their paper. And they also said it was probably dominated by dark matter, which may be quite easy to study due to its proximity.