Using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), astronomers have detected three new ultra-faint dwarfs (UFD) galaxies associated with the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 253. The newly found dwarfs turn out to be among the faintest systems so far discovered beyond the Local Group.
⭐Scl-MM-dw3
⭐Scl-MM-dw4
⭐Scl-MM-dw5
📌Scl-MM-dw3:-
Scl-MM-dw3 is the smallest UFD out of the newly detected trio as its elliptical half-light radius along the semi-major axis was estimated to be about 362 light-years. The galaxy is located some 11.34 million light-years away from the Earth and approximately 264,000 light-years away from NGC 253. Its stellar mass was calculated to be at a level of 110,000 solar masses.
📌Scl-MM-dw4:-
Scl-MM-dw4 turns out to be as massive as Scl-MM-dw3, but is nearly 70 percent larger—its half-light radius was measured to be 613 light-years. This UFD is located about 13.37 million light-years away, and its distance to NGC 253 is estimated to be some 280,300 light-years.
📌Scl-MM-dw5:-
With a half-light radius of about 1,167 and a mass of some 140,000 solar masses, Scl-MM-dw5 is the largest and most massive dwarf out of the three new UFDs. The galaxy is located approximately 12.71 million light-years away from the Earth and about 313,000 light-years from NGC 253.
📌DISCOVERY
The Panoramic Imaging Survey of Centaurus and Sculptor (Pisces) project is one of the astronomical surveys aimed at finding new faint satellite galaxies, including UFDs. As part of Pisces, a team of astronomers led by Burçin Mutlu-Pakdil of the University of Chicago has observed the field around NGC 253 with HST, searching for satellite dwarf systems. At a distance of some 11.4 million light-years, NGC 253 is the principal galaxy of the nearby Sculptor group. The newfound UFDs received designations Scl-MM-dw3, Scl-MM-dw4, and Scl-MMdw5. They are uniformly old (estimated ages of about 12 billion years), with nearly all of their stars forming in the early universe, thus the astronomers consider them as pristine fossils from the era of reionization.
This very informative article was contributed and written by Mister Snehil. He is currently a second-year Btech(CSIT) student of ITER, SOA University. His immense knowledge and passion for the universe and its latest discoveries can be seen in his Instagram handle: @snehil_1618 and @cosmos4_u.
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great!
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