On the outskirts of the Milky Way. Astronomers unexpectedly discovered a dwarf satellite of our galaxy
November 28, 00:03 Share:
Astronomers have discovered a new star system, Sextans II (Photo: Merrillie/Depositphotos)
Astronomers have discovered a new star system, Sextans II, in the vicinity of our galaxy.. It may be a satellite of the Milky Way.
The discovery was made during a large-scale multi-band photometric study, the Kilo-Degree Survey. ( KiDS). KiDS is aimed at finding large-scale structures in the Universe, but can also detect low-luminosity extragalactic star systems like Sextans II.
A group of astronomers from the Capodimonte Observatory in Naples, Italy decided to use KiDS data specifically to search for unknown faint star systems. And this has already yielded significant results.
“We report the detection of significant and compact overdensity in old and metal-poor stars,” the researchers said in a preprint published on arXiv.
The star system they discovered is located at a distance of about 473,000 light years from us. The collected data shows that Sextans II is younger than the age of the Milky Way ( estimated to be at least 10 billion years old). The mass of the new system is estimated at 4910 solar masses, while the Milky Way has 1 trillion solar masses.
Scientists suggest that this ultra-faint dwarf galaxy is likely a faint spheroidal satellite of the Milky Way.
“A final word on the nature of a system can only be given by proper spectroscopic observation of a reasonable sample of member stars, which can be difficult,” the scientists write.
NV Techno wrote that astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope discovered a barred spiral galaxy similar to the Milky Way. This The “ twin galaxy” is the most distant one observed so far.
Read also: Gas shield. Scientists have found a rare galaxy surrounded by a mysterious huge ring. Very beautiful. James Webb Telescope finds an unusual galaxy with an Einstein ring Galactic merger. Astronomers recorded a superfast flash that will reach the Earth in 8 billion years
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