Andromeda XIX is a
satellite galaxy
A satellite galaxy is a smaller companion galaxy that travels on bound orbits within the gravitational potential of a more massive and Luminosity, luminous host galaxy (also known as the primary galaxy). Satellite galaxies and their constituents ...
of the
Andromeda Galaxy
The Andromeda Galaxy is a barred spiral galaxy and is the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way. It was originally named the Andromeda Nebula and is cataloged as Messier 31, M31, and NGC 224. Andromeda has a Galaxy#Isophotal diameter, D25 isop ...
(M31), a member of the
Local Group, like the
Milky Way Galaxy
The Milky Way or Milky Way Galaxy is the galaxy that includes the Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars in other arms of the galaxy, which are ...
.
Andromeda XIX is considered "the most extended
dwarf galaxy
A dwarf galaxy is a small galaxy composed of about 1000 up to several billion stars, as compared to the Milky Way's 200–400 billion stars. The Large Magellanic Cloud, which closely orbits the Milky Way and contains over 30 billion stars, is so ...
known in the Local Group",
and has been shown to have a half-light
radius
In classical geometry, a radius (: radii or radiuses) of a circle or sphere is any of the line segments from its Centre (geometry), center to its perimeter, and in more modern usage, it is also their length. The radius of a regular polygon is th ...
of 1.7
kiloparsec
The parsec (symbol: pc) is a unit of length used to measure the large distances to astronomical objects outside the Solar System, approximately equal to or (AU), i.e. . The parsec unit is obtained by the use of parallax and trigonometry, a ...
(kpc).
It was discovered by the
Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope, and is thought to be a dwarf galaxy.
As with other dwarf galaxies, Andromeda XIX is not producing new stars: 90% of its star formation occurred over 9 billion years ago. However, compared to dwarf galaxies of similar mass Andromeda XIX is extremely diffuse, like
Antlia II.
History
Surveillance was performed during use of the MegaPrime/MegaCam 1 deg2 (camera) on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) had mapped the Andromeda Galaxy's stellar halo (one quarter) up to ~150 kpc.
The survey confirmed the clumpiness of Andromeda's stellar halo. It had shown the existence of multiple other dwarf galaxies.
They include:
Andromeda XI, XII, XIII, XV, XVI,
XVIII, XIX, and XX.
See also
*
List of Andromeda's satellite galaxies
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Andromeda XIX
Andromeda (constellation)
Dwarf galaxies
Interacting galaxies
5056919
Andromeda Subgroup