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History never ceases to amaze us and a group of astronomers has found a group of small galaxies located about 3 million light years from Earth, with Andromeda XXXV standing out as the smallest ever seen. This discovery could change galaxies as we know them today.
Andromeda XXXV, in detail
Eric Bell, an astronomer at the University of Michigan and a member of the research team, spoke about Andromeda XXXV, the smallest galaxy ever seen: "This galaxy is completely functional, its size is about one millionth that of the Milky Way. It's like having a perfectly functioning human being the size of a grain of rice."
Andromeda XXXV is very small and faint, which makes it difficult to detect, especially on a large scale. Until now, galaxies of this size had only been found close to the Milky Way, but now this group of scientists managed to discover Andromeda XXXV thanks to a detailed analysis of large astronomical databases with observations from the Hubble Space Telescope.
Andromeda XXXV managed to continue its star formation for billions of years despite the extreme conditions of the early universe. At that time, the radiation and suffocating heat caused by stars and black holes was intense enough to deplete the gas of many small galaxies, preventing them from growing. However, Andromeda withstood all this, which is a mystery to be solved.
In this way, the discovery of Andromeda XXXV makes experts ask multiple questions about cosmic evolution, space and what it encomes, showing us that we still have much to learn about the cosmos.