An astronomer has discovered a surprise in near space, represented by Unusual dwarf galaxy It is very faint on the outer edges of the Andromeda galaxy, RT reports.
Space observer Giuseppe Donatello spotted the ultra-light dwarf galaxy, called Pegasus V, in archival data from the US Department of Energy’s camera designed to search for dark energy.
These observations caught the attention of astronomers, and they studied the area with a larger telescope in Hawaii, called the Gemini North.
Scientists now believe that Pegasus V may be a “fossil” of the first galaxies, filled with very old stars.
“This discovery represents the first time that the National Science Foundation’s (NOIRLab) Research Laboratory for Optical and Infrared Astronomy, which operates the Gemini North Telescope, said in a statement. in which a faint galaxy is found around the Andromeda galaxy using an astronomical survey that was not specifically designed for this task.”
The galaxy was first discovered in data collected by the 4-meter Víctor M. Blanco Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile.
Donatello was participating in the search for dwarf Andromeda galaxies conducted by David Martinez-Delgado of the Instituto de Astrofísica in Andalusia, Spain, when his sharp eyes spotted Pegasus V.
Scientists argue that the new discovery, which contains only very small amounts of heavy elements, must be an ancient galaxy.
Finding such an object is key because astronomers expect there to be many faint galaxies but actually notice very few of them.
Scientists aren’t sure why these faint fossil galaxies are found, although their faint glow makes them difficult to detect even by professionals.
“If there are really fewer faint galaxies than expected, this means that there is a serious problem in astronomers’ understanding of cosmology and dark matter,” NOIRLab said.
Dark matter is believed to be a large part of the basic structure of the universe, but the challenge for astronomers in the search for dark matter is invisible dark matter for telescopic probes. And we can only see it by its effect on other things.
“This small fossil galaxy from the early universe may help us understand how galaxies formed, and whether our understanding of dark matter is correct,” Collins said.