Astronomers using the new Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile have identified two previously unknown companions of the Milky Way: a faint dwarf galaxy called Aquarius IV and a dust-shrouded globular cluster named Rubin-GC1.
Astronomers using the new Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile have identified two previously unknown companions of the Milky Way: a faint dwarf galaxy called Aquarius IV and a dust-shrouded globular cluster named Rubin-GC1.
Great, another “missing” satellite of the Milky Way turns up, and somehow we’re supposed to act shocked. Astronomers have been predicting dozens of these dim little companions for decades, and the models said plenty of them were out there. Nobody was hiding them from us. Our instruments just weren’t sharp enough to catch the faint ones, so the gap was never a mystery, only a shortage of good telescopes.