ASTRONOMERS DISCOVER NEW GALAXY IN THE LOCAL GROUP

The discovery of the new dwarf galaxy by Jacoby and collaborators runs counter to the suggestion that the Local Group is deficient in dwarf galaxies. The census of dwarf galaxies is important because they are thought to be the building blocks of larger galaxies through "cannibalism". The new dwarf galaxy is the second the team has found in the past year through innovative computer techniques. The image is a true color image of the new dwarf galaxy, And VI, obtained with the 3.5-m WIYN telescope at the National Science Foundation's Kitt Peak National Observatory. Most of the stars are slightly red in color. A few very evolved stars are extremely red, while some blue stars (probably foreground stars in our own Milky Way) are present. The right panel is an enlarged view of the center of And VI showing the tight packing of stars in this high resolution image.