India’s astronomers have discovered a galaxy that lies in front of a larger, brighter galaxy that had previously been undiscovered. 136 million light-years from us, the galaxy has a ghostly appearance and contains stars still in development.
Apparently, a group of researchers from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics in Bengaluru, together with foreign partners, discovered the galaxy while analyzing NGC6902A, a known interacting galaxy. When scientists spotted diffuse blue emission in NGC 6902A’s southwest outer region, the first signs of the hidden galaxy appeared. The team comprised Jyoti Yadav, Mousumi Das, Sudhanshu Barway, and Francoise Combes. India’s Ministry of Science and Technology has made the announcement about the discovery.
Newborn stars of class O and B give off these emissions, making them the galaxy’s most massive and shortest-lived stars. This unusual characteristic prompted the researchers to investigate further to find out why it was occurring. The galaxy has a low surface brightness that is at least 10 times that of the nearby night sky, making it difficult to see. Nevertheless, when optical telescopes develop more power, they will be able to detect the faint luminosity emitted by these galaxies.
These faint galaxies may account for up to 15 percent of the mass of the universe, according to researchers. This new galaxy has also been named UVIT J2022, based on research published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. There may be more dim galaxies connected to larger, brighter galaxies that are yet to be discovered.
