I discovered a galaxy - really! :-)

[cybereye (Mario)]

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

a couple of weeks ago now and this random woman came up to me and said "my friends and I were just wondering...are you the galaxy man?" I laughed and said, well I guess I am

Samsung been around to see you yet?

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by cybereye

Samsung been around to see you yet?

Funnily enough I even have one myself

Mike

[PeterM]

I'm just waiting on The Galaxy 5.1.2.8 Supernova model....

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Only just realised the official Subaru Telescope press release came out on Feb 8 ...I must have been looking in the wrong place

It is probably the best short science summary of the discovery of the many that have come out about this

Galactic Space Oddity Discovered

Mike

[PeterM]

Brilliant! What a great read Mike.
Thanks for posting.

Peter

[DJT (David)]

Great to see the outcome of the investigation of the "smudge"

[astroron (Ron)]

Splendid read Mike,Well done mate.
Cheers.

[astroron (Ron)]

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Only just realised the official Subaru Telescope press release came out on Feb 8 ...I must have been looking in the wrong place

It is probably the best short science summary of the discovery of the many that have come out about this

Galactic Space Oddity Discovered

Mike

Mike, So where is NGC 253-dw1 then?
How far is it away from your find Mike and also is it visible in your type of imaging equipment.
Cheers

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by astroron

Mike, So where is NGC 253-dw1 then?
How far is it away from your find Mike and also is it visible in your type of imaging equipment.
Cheers

Ha ha..that's a good bloody question Ron...never thought to confirm ..I'll get back to you

Mike

[astroron (Ron)]

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Ha ha..that's a good bloody question Ron...never thought to confirm ..I'll get back to you

Mike

I await with baited breath Mike.
It's good to know someone with connections
Cheers

[trader10]

Wow ! That's so cool ! Nice work Mike !!! Congrats !

[astroron (Ron)]

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Ha ha..that's a good bloody question Ron...never thought to confirm ..I'll get back to you

Mike

Still waiting.
Cheers

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by astroron

Still waiting.
Cheers

I did ask the team leader and I haven't heard back...? I'll chase that up again for you

Mike

[David Fitz-Henr]

Just caught up with all this Mike - terrific stuff!! Well done mate! Amazing that an amateur can discover a galaxy with all the professional equipment / surveys that are around to compete with!

[graham.hobart (Graham stevens)]

[HTML]I did ask the team leader and I haven't heard back...? I'll chase that up again for you

"

Ha Mike- was up there last Thursday could have knocked on the door of the Subaru for you!!!!
Graham

[astroron (Ron)]

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

I did ask the team leader and I haven't heard back...? I'll chase that up again for you

Mike

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by David Fitz-Henr

Just caught up with all this Mike - terrific stuff!! Well done mate! Amazing that an amateur can discover a galaxy with all the professional equipment / surveys that are around to compete with!

Thanks so much Dave! It has been a whirlwind ride for sure ...I have been imaging the sky since 1982 so maaate it was just a matter of time..eventually everyone can discover a galaxy with enough sky time

Mike

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by graham.hobart

[HTML]I did ask the team leader and I haven't heard back...? I'll chase that up again for you

"

Ha Mike- was up there last Thursday could have knocked on the door of the Subaru for you!!!!
Graham

Ha ha yeah! Man soooooooo jealous of you man!! Did you see the dark sky??

[madbadgalaxyman (Robert)]

Hi Mike,

Your very own galaxy......most impressive! Can I take out a lease on it?

But seriously now, the up-and-coming field of "near-field cosmology" tries to characterize the contents of local universe, accurately, so as to try to trace back evolutionary events to the era of Galaxy Formation.

Thus there is a lot of interest in characterizing small and ultra-low surface brightness objects like this, in the nearby groups of galaxies. Thus, surveys of the local galaxy groups such as Sculptor, Centaurus (M83+NGC5128), M81 group, etc., keep on turning up more and more of these little galaxies.

Small dwarf galaxies may not seem much...... just a smattering of widely-spaced stars.... but the lower the galaxy luminosity, the higher is the fraction of dark matter in a galaxy;
so tiny ultra-low surface brightness galaxies have to be a virtual "cannonball" in terms of their total (mainly dark) mass, so as to gravitationally hold together that smattering of stars.

The work of Ken Freeman and John Kormendy in fact shows that if we go to sufficiently low galaxy luminosity, there may be "exclusively dark matter" galaxies which have formed no, or virtually no, stars.

So what you are actually chasing when you discover ultra-low surface brightness dwarf galaxies like this one is "dark galaxies" made up of either all dark matter, or nearly all dark matter.

Cheers
Bad galaxy man

[madbadgalaxyman (Robert)]

Here is a plot of the mean surface brightness of a galaxy vs. its absolute magnitude (its luminosity) for the known galaxies within 10 Mpc;



It is screamingly obvious that mean surface brightness gets ever lower, with progressively decreased galaxy luminosity.

In other words, the fainter the galaxy, the more scattered and less significant are its stars;
yet gravity still holds together the stars of these least-luminous and "powder puff like" galaxies. Hence the idea that the least luminous galaxies have the most insubstantial amount of stars, but instead are totally dominated by dark matter.

At the very lowest Galaxy Luminosity in this plot, perhaps we will find the fabled and often predicted "dark galaxies"......so keep imaging deeper, Mike!