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Unveiling the Secret of a Virgo Dwarf Galaxy
May 03, 2000Dwarf galaxies may not be as impressive in appearance as their larger brethren, but they are at least as interestingfrom a scientific point of view. And sometimes they may have hidden properties that will only be found by means of careful observations, probing the signals of their stars at the faintest level. Such as the entirely unexpected, well developed spiral structure within an otherwise seemingly normal dwarf elliptical galaxy!
This is the surprise result of a new study by a team of astronomers, headed by Helmut Jerjen from the Australian National University (Canberra) who obtained detailed observations with the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the dwarf galaxy IC 3328 in the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies, some 50 million light-years away.Dwarf galaxies are present in all major clusters of galaxies and dominate by numbers in the universe. They may contain a few (tens of) millions of stars, as compared to galaxies of normal size with hundreds of billions of stars.
Using the FORS1 multi-mode instrument mounted at the first8.2-m VLT Unit telescope, ANTU, the astronomers observed aseries of dwarf elliptical galaxies in the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies, inthe constellation of that name (The Virgin).In the case of the seemingly inconspicuous dwarf galaxy IC 3382, the astronomers made an amazing discovery. When the best fitting model was removed from the observed image,a neat and regular spiral structure appeared in the residual image!
Nothing like this has ever been seen before in a dwarf elliptical galaxy. The light associated with the spiral constitutes a 3% modulation of the surface brightness. To see this effect at all, requires the excellent image quality of FORS1 and ANTU.
European Southern Observatory (ESO)
Galaxies News and Current Galaxies Events RSSNew virtual telescope zooms in on Milky Way's super-massive black hole
An international team, led by astronomers at the MIT Haystack Observatory, has obtained the closest views ever of what is believed to be a super-massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.
Galaxy Zoo -- an Internet superstar
Since Galaxy Zoo's launch in July 2007, some 150,000 members of the public, inspired by the opportunity to be the first to see and classify a galaxy, have helped professional astronomers via this on-line mass-participation project to carry out real scientific research.
UCI scientists discover minimum mass for galaxies
By analyzing light from small, faint galaxies that orbit the Milky Way, UC Irvine scientists believe they have discovered the minimum mass for galaxies in the universe - 10 million times the mass of the sun.
GLAST Observatory renamed for Fermi, reveals entire gamma-ray sky
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and NASA announced today that the Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) has revealed its first all-sky map in gamma rays.
Stellar still births
The systematics of celestial bodies apparently needs to be revised. Researchers at the Argelander Institute of Astronomy of the University of Bonn have discovered that brown dwarfs need to be treated as a separate class in addition to stars and planets.
Hubble sees magnetic monster in erupting galaxy
The Hubble Space Telescope has found the answer to a long-standing puzzle by resolving giant but delicate filaments shaped by a strong magnetic field around the active galaxy NGC 1275. It is the most striking example of the influence of these immense tentacles of extragalactic magnetic fields, say researchers.
Hubble unveils colourful star birth region on 100 000th orbit milestone
In commemoration of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope completing its 100 000th orbit around the Earth in its 18th year of exploration and discovery, scientists have aimed Hubble to take a snapshot of a dazzling region of celestial birth and renewal.
Study shows clumps and streams of dark matter in inner regions of the Milky Way
Using one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world to simulate the halo of dark matter that envelopes our galaxy, researchers found dense clumps and streams of the mysterious stuff lurking in the inner regions of the halo, in the same neighborhood as our solar system.
'Cosmic ghost' discovered by volunteer astronomer
When Yale astrophysicist Kevin Schawinski and his colleagues at Oxford University enlisted public support in cataloguing galaxies, they never envisioned the strange object Hanny van Arkel found in archived images of the night sky.
Caltech astronomers describe the bar scene at the beginning of the universe
Bars abound in spiral galaxies today, but this was not always the case. A group of 16 astronomers, led by Kartik Sheth of NASA's Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology, has found that bars tripled in number over the past seven billion years, indicating that spiral galaxies evolve in shape.
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