The Sagittarius Dwarf Irregular Galaxy (SagDIG) is a

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 s ...

in the constellation of

Sagittarius Sagittarius ( ) may refer to: *Sagittarius (constellation) *Sagittarius (astrology), a sign of the Zodiac Ships *''SuperStar Sagittarius'', a cruise ship * USS ''Sagittarius'' (AKN-2), a World War II US Navy cargo ship Music *Sagittarius (ban ...

. (SagDIG should not be confused with the

Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy The Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy (Sgr dSph), also known as the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy (Sgr dE or Sag DEG), is an elliptical loop-shaped satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. It contains four globular clusters ...

, SagDEG, 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 luminous host galaxy (also known as the primary galaxy). Satellite galaxies and their constituents are bound t ...

of the

Milky Way The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes our 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 that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked ey ...

discovered decades later in the same constellation.) It lies about 3.4 million

light-year A light-year, alternatively spelled light year, is a large unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equivalent to about 9.46 trillion kilometers (), or 5.88 trillion miles ().One trillion here is taken to be 101 ...

s away. It was discovered by Cesarsky ''et al.'' on a

photographic plate Photographic plates preceded photographic film as a capture medium in photography, and were still used in some communities up until the late 20th century. The light-sensitive emulsion of silver salts was coated on a glass plate, typically thi ...

taken for the ESO (B) Atlas on 13 June 1977 using the

ESO The European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere, commonly referred to as the European Southern Observatory (ESO), is an intergovernmental research organisation made up of 16 member states for ground-based ast ...

1 meter Schmidt telescope. The SagDIG is thought to be the member of the

Local Group The Local Group is the galaxy group that includes the Milky Way. It has a total diameter of roughly , and a total mass of the order of . It consists of two collections of galaxies in a "dumbbell" shape: the Milky Way and its satellites form ...

most remote from the Local Group's

barycenter In astronomy, the barycenter (or barycentre; ) is the center of mass of two or more bodies that orbit one another and is the point about which the bodies orbit. A barycenter is a dynamical point, not a physical object. It is an important co ...

. It is only slightly outside the

zero-velocity surface The zero-velocity surface is a concept that relates to the N-body problem of gravity. It represents a surface a body of given energy cannot cross, since it would have zero velocity on the surface. It was first introduced by George William Hill. The ...

of the Local Group. SagDIG is a much more luminous galaxy than the

Aquarius Dwarf The Aquarius Dwarf is a dwarf irregular galaxy, first catalogued in 1959 by the DDO survey. It is located within the boundaries of the constellation of Aquarius. It is a member of the Local Group of galaxies, albeit an extremely isolated one; it ...

and it has been through a prolonged period of star formation.Momany ''et al.'' 2005. This has resulted in it containing a rich intermediate-age population of stars. Twenty-seven candidate

carbon stars A carbon star (C-type star) is typically an asymptotic giant branch star, a luminous red giant, whose atmosphere contains more carbon than oxygen. The two elements combine in the upper layers of the star, forming carbon monoxide, which consumes mos ...

have been identified inside SagDIG. Analysis shows that the underlying

stellar population During 1944, Walter Baade categorized groups of stars within the Milky Way into stellar populations. In the abstract of the article by Baade, he recognizes that Jan Oort originally conceived this type of classification in 1926: Baade noticed ...

of SagDIG is

metal-poor In astronomy, metallicity is the abundance of elements present in an object that are heavier than hydrogen and helium. Most of the normal physical matter in the Universe is either hydrogen or helium, and astronomers use the word ''"metals"'' as ...

(at least e/Hnbsp;≤ −1.3). Further, the population is young, with the most likely average age between 4 and 8 billion years for the dominant population.

References

External links

* {{Sky, 19, 29, 59.0, -, 17, 40, 41, 3390000 Dwarf irregular galaxies Irregular galaxies Sagittarius (constellation) Local Group 63287 Astronomical objects discovered in 1977