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Astronomers wipe clean their cosmic window

An Australian-led team has captured the first picture of the sky in which the Milky Way no longer blocks our view of the Universe beyond. The new survey, HIPASS, used CSIRO's Parkes radio telescope to detect large numbers of small and faint galaxies, as well as giant clouds of gas that give off no light.

Cosmic Crumbs 'May Have The Numbers'

Astronomers have found far more dwarf galaxies than expected in a survey of just 2% of data from the Parkes radio telescope. The discovery suggests that dwarfs may be 'crumbs' left over when bigger galaxies formed and could provide clues about the distribution of dark matter.