The astronomers have made latest discovery of a dwarf galaxy, which is the new neighbor for our Milky Way galaxy, located almost 7 million light years away.
The researchers’ team discovered the tiny and isolated galaxy, called KKs3, with the help of the Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) in August this year.
The research was led by Prof Igor Karachentsev of the Special Astrophysical Observatory in Karachai-Cherkessia, Russia.
According to the scientists, Kks3 was located in the southern most region in the sky where the Hydrus constellation and its stars comprises only one ten-thousandth of the mass of our galaxy.
Kks3, a dSph galaxy or dwarf spheroidal, lacked features such as the spiral arms that are found in our Milky Way. These systems do not have the raw materials, such as gas and dust, required for the formation of new generations of stars.
This raw material appears to have been stripped out in almost every case by the nearby giant galaxies, such as Andromeda. Hence, the vast majority of dSph objects are generally found near bigger companions.
Astronomers are mainly interested in uncovering dSph objects in order to understand the formation of galaxy in the universe.
The study’s findings were detailed in the monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
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