Dwarf Satellite Galaxy Candidate (IMAGE)
Caption
These two images allow you to see how difficult it is to spot these dwarf galaxy candidates in the Dark Energy Camera's images. The first image is a snapshot of DES J0335.6-5403, a celestial object found with the Dark Energy Camera. It is the most likely of the newly discovered candidates to be a galaxy, according to DES scientists. This object sits roughly 100,000 light-years from Earth, and contains very few stars -- only about 300 could be detected with DES data. The second image shows the detectable stars that likely belong to this object, with all other visible matter blacked out. Dwarf satellite galaxies are so faint that it takes an extremely sensitive instrument like the Dark Energy Camera to find them. More analysis is required to confirm if any of the newly discovered objects are in fact galaxies.
Credit
Image: Fermilab/Dark Energy Survey.
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