Astronomers create most detailed radio image of nearby dwarf galaxy

The new image captured by CSIRO's Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder telescope reveals more gas around the edges of the galaxy, indicating a very dynamic past for the Small Magellanic Cloud. Astronomers at ANU have created the most detailed radio image of nearby dwarf galaxy, the Small Magellanic Cloud, revealing secrets of how it formed and how it is likely to evolve. This image was taken by CSIRO's powerful new radio telescope, the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), and its innovative radio camera technology, known as phased array feeds. The Small Magellanic Cloud, which is a tiny fraction of the size and mass of the Milky Way, is one of our nearest galactic neighbours and visible to the naked eye in the southern sky. Co-lead researcher Professor Naomi McClure-Griffiths said the complex structure of the dwarf galaxy likely resulted, in part, from interactions with its companion, the Large Magellanic Cloud, and the Milky Way. "The new image captured by CSIRO's Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder telescope reveals more gas around the edges of the galaxy, indicating a very dynamic past for the Small Magellanic Cloud," said Professor McClure-Griffiths from the ANU Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics. "These features are more than three times smaller than we were able to see before and allow us to probe the detailed interaction of the small galaxy and its environment."  The new image (see attached) was created as part of a survey that aims to study the evolution of galaxies.