They discover a new dwarf galaxy 4.5 million light years from Earth

A group of astronomers from institutions in the United States, Canada, and Spain discovered an ultrafaint dwarf galaxy called Tucana B.

According to the study, Tucana B is the first isolated and extinct astronomical object that has been identified in the extreme outskirts of the Local Group, a designation given to the set of galaxies made up of three main spiral-shaped systems: the Via Milky Way, Andromeda and the Triangle.

Ultrafaint dwarf galaxies (UFD) are those galaxies that are less luminous because they contain a large amount of dark matter.

The researchers, led by David J. Sand of the University of Arizona, said they found Tucana B while conducting a visual search for ultrafaint satellite galaxies, which are companions to the Tucana dwarf spheroidal galaxy discovered in 1990 and located 3 .2 million light years from Earth.

It was determined that Tucana B is located about six degrees from the Tucana dwarf spheroidal galaxy and that the two are about 1.6 million light-years apart, tentatively concluding that the two systems are not physically close to each other. associates.

Likewise, it was calculated that the distance between Tucana B and Earth is around 4.5 million light years, in addition to its half-light radius being around 260 light years and its absolute magnitude (a measure that indicates the luminosity of a celestial object) is -6.9, which makes it comparable to the ultra-faint satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, RT reported in Spanish.

VTV/JR/JMP

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