An American-Russian team of astronomers discovered a small and isolated dwarf galaxy right next to our Milky Way. Astronomy can be very distant. The dwarf galaxy lies approximately 7 million light-years away. The Royal Astronomical Society publishes their findings in Monthly Notices. The new galaxy was discovered by Prof Igor Karachentsev, Special Astrophysical Observatory, Karachai-Cherkessia (Russia), and his colleagues using the Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera Surveys. KKs3 is located in the south sky, in the direction that the constellation Hydrus faces. The combined mass of its stars is just one-tenth of that of the Milky Way. The spiral arms of the Milky Way are not present in this new galaxy. KKs 3 can be described as a “dwarf spheroidal”, or dSph, galaxy. These galaxies lack the necessary raw materials, such as dust and gas, to allow new stars to be formed. They also leave behind more obscure relics. The massive Andromeda Galaxy has taken most of the galaxy’s raw materials. KKs 3, as seen through a negative using the Advanced Camera for Surveys of the Hubble Space Telescope. Right hand, the darkest object in the middle of the photo is the central part of the galaxy. Its stars spread out all around it. One of the nearer-globular clusters is visible left, and it’s one of two darker objects. Photo: Astrobio.net. Isolated objects may have been formed in a different way. Perhaps there was an earlier burst or star formation, which used all of the gas available. To gain an improved understanding of the formation of galaxies in the universe, astronomers want to locate dSph objects. KKs 3 does not have hydrogen gas clouds, so it is harder to find in surveys. Instead, astronomers look for individual stars to find them. This is the reason why only one isolated dwarf spheroidal – KKR 25 – has been discovered in the Local Group. It was a similar discovery made by the same team in 1999.. Professor Dimitry Makarov of the team said that “Finding objects such as Kks3 can be difficult, even when you have observatories like Hubble Space Telescope.” We are slowly building a map of the local area, and it turns out that is less empty than we expected. There may be a lot of dwarf spheroidal galactic galaxies in the area, which could have major implications for our theories about the evolution and cosmos.” Researchers say that they will continue to search out more of these dSph galaxies. This task should become easier when instruments such as the European Extremely Large Telescope (EXL) and the James Webb Space Telescope are available.
