Antlia II

Antlia II
Illustration
Observation data (J2000 epoch)
Pronunciation/ˈæntliə .../
ConstellationAntlia
Right ascension9h 35m 32.832s[1]
Declination-36° -46m -2.28s[1]
Distance405,000 ly (124.1 kpc)[2]
Absolute magnitude (V)−9.86±0.08 mag[3]
Characteristics
Half-light radius (physical)2.5 kpc[3]
Half-light radius (apparent)1.10°
Other designations
Ant 2

Antlia II (Ant II) is a low-surface-brightness dwarf satellite galaxy of the Milky Way at a galactic latitude of 11.2°. It spans 1.26° in the sky just southeast of Epsilon Antliae. The galaxy is similar in size to the Large Magellanic Cloud, despite being 1/10,000 as bright. Antlia II has the lowest surface brightness of any galaxy discovered[4] and is ~ 100 times more diffuse than any known ultra diffuse galaxy.[1] The large size of the galaxy suggests that it is currently being tidally disrupted, and is in the process of becoming a stellar stream.[3] The southeast side of Antlia II is farther away than the northwest side, likely due to the tidal disruption.[2] It was discovered using data from the European Space Agency's Gaia spacecraft in November 2018.

  1. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference torrealba was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b Vivas, A. Katherina; Martínez-Vázquez, Clara E.; Walker, Alistair R.; Belokurov, Vasily; Li, Ting S.; Erkal, Denis (2022). "Variable Stars in the Giant Satellite Galaxy Antlia 2". The Astrophysical Journal. 926 (1): 78. arXiv:2112.08467. Bibcode:2022ApJ...926...78V. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ac43bd. S2CID 245219267.
  3. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference Ji was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference forbes was invoked but never defined (see the help page).