Discover 4 more satellite galaxies of the Milky Way

An additional four Milky Way galaxy galaxies have just been discovered, bringing the total number of known satellite galaxies to nearly 20.

Canes Venatici (Photo: meade.com)

According to the New Scientist scientific journal, these four satellite galaxies were discovered by the group of Cambridge University researchers, led by Vasily Belokurov.

These satellite galaxies are named after the names of the constellations where they were discovered: Coma Berenices, Canes Venatici II, Hercules and Leo IV. The largest and smallest galaxy is Hercules and Coma Berenices, which are about 1,000 and 2,000 light-years across.

Astronomers used new observations and detailed sky maps, including the Sloan Digital Sky Observatory (SDSS) to observe these galaxies.

As with most other dwarf galaxies discovered by SDSS, these new galaxies are smaller and fainter than previously known galaxies.

These dwarf galaxies are thought to form large galaxies, such as our own Milky Way galaxy, with a width of about 100,000 light-years.

Coma Berenices (Photo: astrocruise.com)

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