LONDON: The fluffiest galaxies ever seen in the universe have been discovered by astronomers. This class of diffuse collections of stars can be up to 60,000 light years in diameter – almost as large as our own Milky Way – but contain just 1 percent as many stellar bodies.
These newly described ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDG’s) sit roughly 300 million light years from the Earth. Measurement of the distance allowed astronomers to determine the sparse population of these collections of stars.
“We are beginning to form some ideas about how they were born and it’s remarkable they have survived at all. They are found in a dense, violent region of space filled with dark matter and galaxies whizzing around, so we think they must be cloaked in their own invisible dark matter ‘shields’ that are protecting them from this intergalactic assault,” said Pieter van Dokkum from Yale University.
The W. M. Keck Observatory was utilized to study these galaxies using the world’s largest telescope, as well as amateur-sized telephoto lenses just 5.6 inches in diameter. The large telescope was used to measure the composition of the galaxies, as well as the distance to the stellar families. This data was compiled with digital images of the bodies taken of the bodies.
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