Two teams of astronomers from the University of Cambridge have discovered nine dwarf galaxies orbiting the milky way, the largest number ever discovered at one shot.
These dwarf galaxies are expected to hold clues about the birth of first galaxies, the formation of the milky way, mysteries behind dark matter and invisible substances which holds the galaxies together.
The results of this study also marks the discovery of first ever dwarf galaxies in a decade. Dwarf galaxies are small celestial objects which orbit larger galaxies.
These objects are a billion times dimmer than milky way, and they are expected to be a million times less massive.
According to the astronomers in the University of Cambridge, three of the objects discovered are definitely dwarf galaxies. The remaining six could be either dwarf galaxies or global clusters. Global clusters are objects with similar visible properties to dwarf galaxies, but not held together with dark matter.
These new galaxies were found in the Southern Hemisphere near the large and small Magellanic Cloud. Magellanic cloud is the largest and popular dwarf galaxy in the Milky Way’s orbit. The closest dwarf galaxy among the group is 95, 000 light years away, while the most distant one is more than a million light years away.
Dwarf Galaxies contain 99% dark matter, and the remaining one percent is observable matter. The discovery of dwarf galaxies will help the researchers to study about the accuracy of present dark matter models.
The research report will be published in the Astrophysical journal.
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