United galaxy orbiting the Milky Way – Interia

Astronomers have discovered large galaxy orbiting the Milky Way. How is it possible that tracked down her now?

around the Milky Way revolves 49 of galaxies – one of them is Crater 2

/ NASA

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Great galaxy called Crater 2 is only 400 thousand. light years away from us. How is it possible that we discovered it only now? Stars in Crater 2 are strongly scattered, making this galaxy is very dark and at the same time effectively covered up by their neighbors brighter.

– This is a very rare discovery. The galaxies of this type are virtually invisible to us – said Vasily Belokurov of the University of Cambridge, the head of the research team.

Around the Milky Way revolves 49 other known galaxies. Discovery Crater 2 confirms that in fact there may be many more.

Crater Galaxy 2 was first noticed in January, when astronomers used the algorithm to analyze images taken using Very Large Telescope in Chile. That algorithm pointed unusual cluster of stars – one of them was a galaxy Crater 2.

Galaxies do not have clear boundaries, so astronomers determine the size of the radius półświatła, which means the radius of the galaxy, from which half of its brightness. Effective radius of the galaxy Crater 2 is approx. 7000 years light.

Over the last 10 years the number of known galaxies orbiting the Milky Way has doubled. This confirms the thesis that we still know very little about our surrounding universe.