The Sculptor Dwarf is a small spheroidal galaxy orbiting the Milky Way, the first of its kind ever found, made of old stars and dominated by dark matter.
At a glance
| type | galaxy |
|---|---|
| distance from the Sun | 294,000 light-years (90 kpc) |
| its light left it | 294,000 years ago |
| size in the piece | about 3,400 light-years acrossmodel |
Read off the piece’s own catalogue, the same values it draws with. Model marks a property of the piece’s galaxy model rather than a measurement.
About Sculptor Dwarf
Harlow Shapley found the Sculptor Dwarf on photographic plates taken in South Africa, and it was the first dwarf spheroidal galaxy known: a faint, roughly round swarm of stars with no gas and no obvious structure, unlike any galaxy then recognised. It lies in the southern constellation Sculptor, near the south galactic pole, well away from the dust of the Milky Way’s disc.
Its stars are old and poor in heavy elements, formed mostly early in the universe, and their chemistry records a short burst of star formation that ended long ago. Like the other dwarf spheroidals, its stars move faster than its visible mass allows, so it is dominated by dark matter. Its stellar motions have been measured in detail and are a standard test of dark matter models.
What you see in the piece
In the piece it is a faint, diffuse swarm of old, warm-coloured stars far below the galactic disc, invisible from the Sun and only resolved when you fly out to it.
Questions
What was the first dwarf spheroidal galaxy discovered?
The Sculptor Dwarf, found by Harlow Shapley, was the first dwarf spheroidal galaxy known.
How far away is the Sculptor Dwarf galaxy?
The Sculptor Dwarf is 294,000 light-years (90 kpc) from the Sun.