Eight more near galaxies are discovered

Copyright 2007 by United Press International. All Rights Reserved.

SEATTLE, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- A British astronomer says at least eight more galaxies have been discovered near Earth's home galaxy, the Milky Way, and dozens more are expected to be found.

Daniel Zucker of the University of Cambridge says the discoveries made during the past two years nearly double the number of Milky Way-area galaxies found during the prior 70 years.

"Seven of them are new dwarf galaxies (bound to) the Milky Way, ranging in distance from roughly 100,000 to 700,000 light-years from us," Zucker told a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle.

Zucker said the new dwarf galaxies are extremely faint and diffuse and contain at most a few million stars each, National Geographic News reported. In fact, they are so small he suggests calling them "hobbit galaxies."

In contrast, the Milky Way contains at least 200 billion stars. http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science&article=UPI-1-20070115-16084900-bc-us-galaxies.xml