In your daily reminder that all of the existing matter in the known, vast universe is difficult to discover, confirm and categorize, researchers have announced the discovery of the Crater 2 dwarf galaxy which is currently orbiting the Milky Way.
The Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society from the University of Cambridge made the shocking discovery, which has also slightly shamed the scientific community. Despite being the 4th largest galaxy orbiting our own, and being essentially right next door to us, Crater 2 was overlooked for all of time due to being one of the darkest known galaxies. In fact, it’s so dark that researchers have dubbed it “the feeble galaxy” which seems fun now, but just wait until it hits its growth spurt.
This galaxy suddenly appearing in earth’s telescopes is no doubt a big deal, and it makes everyone wonder if there are other galaxies right next to our own, ready to be found.
The galaxy is approximately 120 kiloparsecs from the sun. To put that into perspective, a parsec is 3.26 light years, which is the equivalent of 19 trillion miles.
For reference, Han Solo made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs in the Millennium Falcon.
(Via Gizmodo)