They discovered that the Small Magellanic Cloud is actually made up of two mini-galaxies.

The Magellanic Clouds are nearby dwarf galaxies that we can easily see from Earth’s southern hemisphere. There are two of them – at least, so it was believed until now -: the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Small Magellanic Cloud. But the latest one comes with a surprise: a new study claims that What seemed like one galaxy was actually two.

The confusion stems from the fact that one is behind the other from our planet’s perspective. The Small Magellanic Cloud, also known as the SMC, is one of the most studied star systems in our Universe due to its proximity. It is about 200,000 light years from Earth.

The curiosity of astronomers is heightened because its structure and elements are very different from the structure and elements of our Milky Way galaxy. For example, it has lower metallicity and is therefore an excellent laboratory for understanding the physics of the interstellar medium (ISM). The latter is gas and dust between stars within a galaxy, while the circumgalactic medium is gas and dust between galaxies.

A large international team of astronomers and astrophysicists has confirmed that the chemical composition of the two “parts” of the Small Magellanic Cloud is different. They also found that they had different speeds: one area closer to Earth moved faster than another. Moreover, they noticed that both had the same mass.

Global Small Magellanic Cloud Galaxy Team

Thus, the researchers concluded that, ultimately, the evidence strongly points to two different dwarf galaxies. Nearest approx. The distance from us is 199,000 light years, and the farthest is about 215,000 light years away.

In the late 1980s, the first signs appeared that these were two galaxies. The evidence has now been confirmed through the provision of accurate data from several observatories around the world.

The research team first examined data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia space observatory, which allowed them to estimate the average speed of stars in different parts of the Small Magellanic Cloud. They then examined data from the Australian ASKAP radio telescope complex, located at the Murchison Radio Astronomy Observatory (MRO) in Australia. In this way they analyzed the interstellar medium.

Another group that collaborated was from Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico. This center coordinates research at the Sloan Foundation Telescope and the NMSU Telescope.

The Small Magellanic Cloud is full of mysteries. NASA’s James Webb Telescope recently discovered star formation in the cluster’s dust ribbons. His team explored the famous region as NCG 346, and discovered more than 33,000 young stars embedded in the nebula.

The conditions of the Small Magellanic Cloud resemble those observed in galaxies that existed billions of years ago. This is the era of the universe known as “cosmic noon”when star formation was at its peak.