Antarctic meltwater streams shed light on longstanding hydrological mystery

[Judi Lynn]

February 1, 2019, University of Colorado at Boulder

Astronomers Have Accidentally Discovered a Tiny Galaxy Right in Our Backyard
MICHELLE STARR 1 FEB 2019

Humanity is getting pretty good at looking deep into space. We've peered back over 13 billion light-years. We've seen - actually seen - two neutron stars colliding. We're homing in on fast radio bursts, and we're about to see, for the first time, the event horizon of a black hole. But there are still some surprises out there, even in our own corner of the Universe.

While taking observations of a nearby globular cluster, the Hubble Space Telescope accidentally caught a previously unseen galactic photobomber in the distance. The newly discovered galaxy has been named Bedin I - and it's nearly as old as the Universe.

The mission was to look for the faintest stars in NGC 6752, a globular cluster 13,000 light-years away within the Milky Way's halo, where a bunch of globular clusters just hang out.

But in the distance - around 30 million light-years away, roughly 2,300 times more distant than the star they were aiming at - Bedin I was lurking. (The Local Group is about 10 million light-years across; if you think of it like a block, 30 million is like being in the same cosmic town.)

More:
https://www.sciencealert.com/astronomers-have-accidentally-discovered-a-tiny-galaxy-right-in-our-backyard

[Javaman]

1. FYI. Title doesn't match story. nt

[Igel]

2. Let's go with this one.

https://phys.org/news/2019-02-antarctic-meltwater-streams-longstanding-hydrological.html