An international team of astronomers has discovered a dwarf galaxy in images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope.
This is reported by the scientific portal Phys.org.
Researchers report that a dwarf galaxy, named PEARLSDG, has been discovered in a region of space they did not expect to study. This is because PEARLSDG does not fit the typical characteristics of dwarf galaxies that one might expect to see.
It does not interact with neighboring galaxies and does not form new stars. This appears to be an interesting example of an isolated galaxy at rest.
“These types of isolated dwarf galaxies have not been seen before, except in a few cases. The fact that we are seeing this object helps us improve our theories about how they form,” the scientists said in a statement.
Recent observations of dwarf galaxies have shown that there are a significant number of “ultradiffuse galaxies” – a type of galaxy with low surface brightness and fuzzy edges that were previously not available for detailed analysis using large spectroscopic surveys. This discovery highlights that our understanding of the number of dwarf galaxies may be incomplete.
Another unexpected discovery was the discovery of stars within the galaxy in the images. Thanks to the brightness of these stars, astronomers were able to measure the distance to the galaxy – it was 98 million light years.
Earlier, Cursor wrote that scientists accidentally discovered a galaxy devoid of stars. Apparently, this is the first known protogalaxy in the nearby Universe. In an attempt to detect galaxies with low surface brightness, researchers pointed the telescope at the wrong coordinates, leading to an unexpected discovery.
