A team of astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have found a new neighbouring galaxy to our own Milky Way, a tiny and isolated dwarf galaxy almost 7 million light years away.
The Milky Way and Andromeda (M31) are the most massive members of what is known as the Local Group, a cluster of more than 50 galaxies.
The group itself is a part of the larger Virgo Supercluster. Russian and American astronomers, led by Professor Igor Karachentsev of the Special Astrophysical Observatory in Russia, found the new galaxy using the Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) in August 2014.
Named KKs3, the new galaxy lies in the southern sky in the direction of the constellation of Hydrus and its stars have only one ten-thousandth of the mass of the Milky Way. KKs3 is a dwarf spheroidal (or dSph) galaxy, lacking features like the spiral arms found in our own galaxy. It does not resemble the classic image of a galaxy, being very strung out and shapeless, which helps explain why it has remained unnoticed for so long.
See more at: http://sen.com/news/hubble-finds-a-lonely-new-neighbour-of-the-milky-way#sthash.vWqyLdG6.dpuf
Tue Dec 30, 2014 7:18 pm
