Space & Astronomy

ESO astronomers discover 72 new galaxies

By T.K. Randall
November 30, 2017

Image: Milky Way Galaxy Seen From Amphu Laptsa Base Camp
Credit: Pravin Mishra / CC BY-SA 4.0 (adapted) The discovery was made using the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument on the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile.

The galaxies were situated in a patch of sky previously investigated by the Hubble Space Telescope and were identified thanks to MUSE's ability to make observations across a range of wavelengths.

"MUSE can do something that Hubble can't - it splits up the light from every point in the image into its component colours to create a spectrum," said astrophysicist Roland Bacon.

"This allows us to measure the distance, colors and other properties of all the galaxies we can see - including some that are invisible to Hubble itself."


Source: CBC.ca

Tags: Galaxy, ESO, Hubble