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A typo helped discover one of the dimmest galaxies ever

In a happy coincidence, a group of astronomers from Green Bank Observatory in the US state of West Virginia found, presumably, the dimmest galaxy in the Universe, having made a mistake when entering coordinates into the telescope. The detected object appears to consist solely of scattered gas, and there are no visible stars in it.

The new galaxy, dubbed J0613+52, was spotted when incorrectly entered coordinates into the Green Bank telescope put it in the wrong position. Researchers were amazed to see a hitherto unknown isolated object, which was characterised as a dark primary galaxy.

According to scientists, this object was not subject to any influence from the outside, the stars were formed there by themselves, and not due to gravitational interaction with other objects. Experts stressed that the lack of neighbours and the dispersion of gas indicate that a limited number of stars were formed, and those that appeared, almost not visible, which makes the galaxy extremely dim, and it is not easy to notice with the available instruments.

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