Antlia 2

Antlia 2 (Ant 2) is a low-surface-brightness dwarf satellite galaxy of the Milky Way at a galactic latitude of 11.2°. It spans 1.26° in the sky just southeast of Epsilon Antliae. The galaxy is similar in size to the Large Magellanic Cloud, despite being 1/10,000 as bright. Antlia 2 has the lowest surface brightness of any galaxy discovered[1] and is ~ 100 times more diffuse than any known ultra diffuse galaxy.[2] It was discovered by the European Space Agency's Gaia spacecraft in November 2018.

Antlia 2
Observation data (J2000 epoch)
Pronunciation/ˈæntliə.../
ConstellationAntlia
Right ascension9h 35m 36s
Declination−36.8°
Distance422,000 ly (129.4 kpc)
Absolute magnitude (V)−8.5±0.15 mag
Characteristics
Half-light radius (physical)2.9 kpc
Half-light radius (apparent)1.26°
Other designations
Ant 2

See also

References

  1. "ESA's Gaia Spacecraft Spots Ghost Galaxy Lurking In Milky Way's Outskirts". Forbes. Retrieved November 20, 2018.
  2. Torrealba, G.; Belokurov, V.; Koposov, S. E.; Li, T. S.; Walker, M. G.; Sanders, J. L.; Geringer-Sameth, A.; Zucker, D. B.; Kuehn, K.; Evans, N. W.; Dehnen, W. (2018). "The hidden giant: Discovery of an enormous Galactic dwarf satellite in Gaia DR2". arXiv:1811.04082 [astro-ph.GA].


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