ESA Releases Photo of Newly Discovered Dwarf Galaxy Donatiello II

Hubble is still helping astronomers despite its age.

The European Space Agency (ESA) recently released a photo of a newly discovered galaxy found by one amateur astronomer using data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES).

The galaxy in question is one of three newly discovered galaxies, all of which were discovered by the same amateur astronaut.

Donatiello II Picture Details

The ESA mentioned in its blog post that Donatiello II, the galaxy in question, is difficult to find in the picture. However, it did provide a few hints that show where it is.

The space agency hinted that Donatiello II is right in the middle of the image above, situated among a "smattering of distant stars and even more distant galaxies."

Unfortunately, this is the best photo astronomers can get due to the limitations of the algorithms they use to search the universe for potential galaxy candidates.

"Even the best algorithms have their limitations when it comes to distinguishing very faint galaxies from individual stars and background noise, the ESA added.

As such, astronomers found and photographed the galaxy in question the old-fashioned way - a dedicated sifting of data by human effort.

At the risk of oversimplifying the astronomers' efforts, it could be said that astronomers found Donatiello II by brute forcing their way through the collected data.

For this, astronomers have Giuseppe Donatiello to thank for. The space agency mentioned that Donatiello, an amateur astronomer, laboriously processed and analyzed chunks of DES data and discovered three galaxies, now named Donatiello II, III, and IV, respectively.

Donatiello used data collected by the DES, an observation effort that spanned six years and was carried out using the Dark Energy Camera (DECam), which is mounted on the Victor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, a Program of the National Science Foundation's NOIRLab, per Inverse.

Donatiello II Facts

Donatiello II, like its sister galaxies Donatiello III and IV, are satellite galaxies of the Sculptor Galaxy, formally known as NGC 253. This status of being satellite galaxies means they're bound gravitationally to their much more massive companion much like the moon is to Earth.

The Sculptor Galaxy, for those unaware, is 13 million light-years from Earth, per the ESA. It is also one of the brightest spiral galaxies in the night sky, making it easily visible with small telescopes.

Donatiello II is a clear example of an irregular galaxy, a type of galaxy with no particular shape and is numbered among the smallest galaxies, per Cool Cosmos.

Much like the galaxies of the same type, Donatiello II consists of many very small stars and a few slightly larger, bright stars surrounded by a very faint glow that marks its borders.

The image ESA posted came from an observing program from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, with a team of astronomers led by Burçin Mutlu-Pakdil obtaining long-exposure images using the aging telescope. Thanks to the image they obtained, astronomers confirmed Donatiello's discovery.