Astronomers found a new dwarf galaxy orbiting the Milky Way, raising new possibilities of what may be found beyond our world.
Although the discovery is an exciting feat and appears to be sudden, experts cannot help but feel a tinge of embarrassment. This is because they found that the galaxy called Crater 2 has been there for quite some time now.
The question now is, how did Crater 2 manage to pull off its existence without earthlings, with relatively modern space object detectors, knowing?
Definitely Not The Size
Crater 2 is so enormous and considered to be gigantic that it would be fairly hard to miss it.
"Given its half-light radius of ∼1100 pc, Crater 2 is the fourth largest satellite of the Milky Way, surpassed only by the LMC, SMC and the Sgr dwarf," the authors write.
Distance? No.
The distance of the galaxy to our own Milky Way cannot be blamed either.
As Crater 2 has been found orbiting ours, it only means that the dwarf galaxy is a part of the same space community as the Milky Way, much like IC 1613 clean freak galaxy, which is located 2.3 million light-years away from Earth.
In comparison, Crater 2 is located at a much closer distance of 380,000 light-years. It was recently discovered by Gabriel Torrealba and colleagues from the University of Cambridge.
The mystery then creeps deeper. What is it in Crater 2 that made it obscure from experts' knowledge until now?
The Dark Side
The answer to this mystery is Crater 2's relatively dark appearance, with it being recognized as among the dimmest galaxies in the entire universe. This then logically nulls the closeness and large size of Crater 2 in letting the researchers discover it.
With these characteristics, Crater 2 has been dubbed "The Feeble Giant."
Other Possibilities
Because of technological advancements, modern equipment and novel approaches to studying the universe, it is not surprising that astronomers will discover more galaxies in the future.
Crater 2 was specifically detected after analyzing photos captured using a big telescope stationed in Chile. In fact, other scientists have expressed their interest in engaging similar researches to discover more dark galaxies.
The study was published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
