Dwarf Galaxies

Our Milky Way belongs to a cluster of about a dozen galaxies known as the Local Group. New discoveries keep increasing that cluster’s number. Astronomers are finding more of the small dwarf galaxies that hover around our Milky Way. These dwarf galaxies, hidden among the stars, gas and dust of our own galaxy, are difficult to detect. But a new survey of the sky is helping astronomers pick out more of our galaxy’s little companions.

Amateurs Search for Extrasolar Planets
An international team of professional and amateur astronomers, using simple, off-the-shelf equipment to search the skies for planets outside our solar system, has struck gold. The astronomers discovered a Jupiter-sized planet, named XO-1b, orbiting a Sun-like star 600 light-years from Earth in the constellation Corona Borealis. Using modest telescopes to search for extrasolar planets could create a collaboration between professional and amateur astronomers that would accelerate the quest to find extrasolar planets.

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