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Around and Around
Looks like everything in the universe revolves around something . The Moon revolves around the Earth, which revolves around the Sun, which revolves around the center of the Milky Way.
But she does not stop there. Galaxies can even orbit other galaxies and now an international team of astronomers has discovered a new satellite galaxy around our own Milky Way – and it's a strange one.
Howdy, Neighbor
According to an article published in arXiv earlier in November, researchers discovered this new dwarf galaxy, which they call Antlia 2 – or "Ant 2" – by sifting through the data collected by the Gaia satellite of the European Space Agency.
The galaxy has escaped detection for so long, especially because of its proximity to ours, several factors come into play. First, Ant 2 is located behind the Milky Way Drive – an ideal hideaway . It is also an extremely low density that emits very little light.
"It's a galaxy ghost," researcher Gabriel Torrealba said in a press release. "Objects as diffuse as Ant 2 have not been seen before. Our discovery was only possible thanks to the quality of the Gaia data. "
Galactic Weirdo
Ant 2 is not the only known galaxy in orbit around us, but it's" a funny ball ", according to researcher Matthew Walker. </ P> <p> is relatively mbadive – about a third of the size of the Milky Way – and researchers are perplexed as to how this might have happened.
"Normally, when galaxies lose mbad against tides of the Milky Way, they contract, not grow, "said researcher Sergey Koposov in the press release.
Knowing that this unusual galaxy exists, astronomers are curious to know what might be missing in our galactic backyard. "We wonder if this galaxy is only the tip of an iceberg," Walker said, "and the Milky Way is surrounded by a vast population of almost invisible dwarves, similar to that "
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