(ORDO NEWS) — The new fossil galaxy, which was discovered through a systematic visual search of old Mayall 4-meter survey images led by Dr. David Martínez Delgado, could tell scientists about how galaxies form and confirm their understanding of cosmology and dark matter.
Dr. Michelle Collins, an astronomer at the University of Surrey (UK), says that they “have discovered a new, extremely faint galaxy whose stars formed very early in the history of the universe.
This discovery marks the first time such a faint galaxy around Andromeda has been detected by an astronomical survey that was not specifically designed for this task.”
Named Pegasus V, the dwarf galaxy is located near Andromeda and looks like a few rare stars hidden in the sky.
The discovery was made in collaboration with NSF NOIRLab and the Gemini International Observatory.
Emily Charles, a graduate student at the University of Surrey who also took part in the study, says that “the problem with these extremely faint galaxies is that they have very few of the bright stars that we normally use to identify them and measure distances.”
The large 8.1-meter Gemini mirror gave us the ability to find dim, old stars, which allowed us to measure the distance to Pegasus V and determine that its stellar population is extremely old.
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