What is it about?
When looking for small galaxies in the Fornax Galaxy Cluster we discovered that 6 of the unresolved 'stars' in our sample were not stars in our own Milky Way galaxy, but extremely compact galaxies in the distant Fornax Cluster. These were much more compact than any known type of galaxy,
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Why is it important?
These very small "ultracompact dwarf galaxies" have since been found to contain supermassive black holes. This means they must have formed in larger galaxies that were then disrupted - opening up a new way to measure the number of galaxies disrupted in the cluster environment. It may also double the number of black holes thought to be present in clusters.
Perspectives
These new objects were clearly visible in the sky survey images of the time, but had remained unrecognised for 30 years. The Australian "2dF" multi-object spectrograph enabled us to measure their distances for the first time to reveal them as distant galaxies.
Michael Drinkwater
University of Queensland
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Ultra-Compact Dwarf Galaxies in Galaxy Clusters, Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, January 2004, Cambridge University Press,
DOI: 10.1071/as04048.
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