Astronomers discovered through the Hubble space telescope that some of the stars that belonged to the globular cluster NGC 675 are not in the Milky Way but form a new dwarf galaxy that is about 30 million light years away, really close in cosmic terms
Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope to study some of the oldest and faintest stars in the globular cluster NGC 6752 have made an unexpected discovery. They discovered a dwarf galaxy in our cosmic backyard, just 30 million light years away. The findings are reported in the scientific journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters.
An international team of astronomers recently used the NASA/ESA Space Telescope to study white dwarf stars within the globular cluster NGC 6752. The purpose of their observations was to use these stars to measure the age of the globular cluster, but instead, they made an unexpected discovery.
At the outer edges of the region observed with Hubble's Advanced Survey Camera, a compact collection of stars has been revealed. After careful analysis of their brightness and temperatures, the astronomers concluded that these stars do not belong to the cluster that is part of the Milky Way - but are millions of light years away from it.
The recently discovered cosmic neighbor, which was inhabited by astronomers "Bedin 1" is a modest and concentrated galaxy. Its diameter at its widest axis is only about 3,000 light years, a fraction of the size of the Milky Way. Not only is she tiny, she is also very pale. These characteristics have led astronomers to classify it as a dwarf spheroidal galaxy.
According to Wikipedia, a spheroid is a rotating surface formed by rotating an ellipse around one of its axes. Dwarf spheroidal galaxies are defined by their small size, low luminosity, absence of dust, and old stellar populations. 36 galaxies of this type are already known in the Local Group of galaxies, 22 of which are satellite galaxies of the Milky Way.
While dwarf spheroidal galaxies are not uncommon, Bedin 1, has several prominent muffins, not only is it one of the known distant dwarf spheroidal galaxies, but it is also very isolated. It is about 30 million light-years from the Milky Way, and about 2 million light-years from the much larger galaxy NGC 6744. This makes it the most isolated dwarf galaxy discovered so far.
From the properties of the stars of the galaxy, the astronomers were able to conclude that it is about 13 billion years old - almost as old as the universe itself. Because of its isolation that prevented it from contact with other galaxies, and its discovery, it can be said that Bedin 1 is the astronomical equivalent of a living fossil from the early universe.
Discovering an object such as Bedin 1 is difficult: very few Hubble instruments are able to see such faint objects, and they only cover a small area of the sky. Future telescopes with a large field of view, such as the WFIRST telescope, will have cameras that cover a much larger area of the sky and thus the telescope may discover many more such galactic neighbors.
WFIRST is designed to be a space telescope that will observe the universe in the infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum to study the nature of dark energy and locate planets outside the solar system. Its construction is planned to be completed in 2020, and it will complement the information received from the James Webb Space Telescope, which is also scheduled to be launched and replace the Hubble Space Telescope.
to the announcement of the European Space Agency
More of the topic in Hayadan:
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There is a very important point, to which I did not find an answer in all the articles and all the comments, and it is:
If we look at a galaxy that is, let's say, 12 billion light years away, we actually see it in the same place and form it was 12 billion years ago. Right ? But the question is where is she today? Since as far as we know today, the farther away the galaxies are from us, the faster they "run away" - this means that the same galaxy is today 14, 15, or 16 billion light years away. If so, doesn't it follow that the age of the universe is more than 13.8 billion years?
I agree with Yigal. When the majority is based on illusory matter - dark, with its "cousin" dark energy, then everything is on chicken's knees!
Sabdarmish Yehuda
http://yekumpashut.freevar.com/
To Jonathan Goren
First of all, the entire universe is the same age and all the galaxies are also (more or less) the same age, all the matter in the universe was created in the big bang and all the galaxies formed at about the same time.
According to the currently accepted estimates, the age of the universe is about 13.8 billion years and the age of most galaxies is about 13 billion years.
It is possible that what misleads you is the fact that when we look far away we see the distant past because the light that reaches us today came out of there long ago, billions of years ago. But if we could observe the distant galaxies up close, we assume that they would look as we see the galaxies near us today.
To Jonathan Goren
Contrary to what you say, although the age of our galaxy is about 13.2 billion years, we are not at the edge of the universe, not even near the edge.
It must be understood, according to the big bang theory, the entire universe was created at the moment of the bang. Therefore, to a first approximation, all the galaxies in the universe are close to 13.2 billion years old.
At the same time, when we look at the sky, we see the distant galaxies, not as they are today but, as they were in the past millions and billions of years ago, when the light that reaches our eyes today was emitted from them then.
To summarize: the entire universe is of uniform age, but when we look at the universe, we see it in its stages of development, from infancy (distant) to maturity (near).
incidentally,
It is very interesting to look into the early universe and also important. But without the discovery of dark matter, the whole standard-model is limited.
Not even sure it exists
"now"
There in space
So many stars, systems and galaxies and yet not a single living creature has risen to come to the grave 🙁
The age of the galaxy is about 13 billion years - meaning that it was formed about 13 billion years ago on the one hand, and on the other hand it has not collided with other galaxies since then. If it collided and merged with other galaxies, the scientists would tell about the discovery of a small (but not that small) and boring, younger galaxy (the age of the creation of the merged galaxy).
If her age is like the age of the universe - does that mean we are at the edge of the universe?
Otherwise, how is it possible that matter came after us, it had to be at a speed beyond the speed of light?