Faint young stars reveal spiral galaxy Messier 74 may be twice as large as thought
Astronomers have discovered a faint population of young stars extending far beyond the known edge of the nearby spiral galaxy Messier 74. The finding suggests the galaxy is nearly twice as large as previously measured. The new study was published Sept. 4 in Astronomy & Astrophysics.
Astronomers have discovered a population of faint, young stars extending far beyond the known edge of the nearby spiral galaxy Messier 74, suggesting the galaxy is nearly twice as large as previously thought. Using deep optical imaging from the Transient Survey Telescope at Teide Observatory, researchers spotted an extremely faint, blue stellar structure that extends 30 kiloparsecs (around 97,800 light-years) from the galaxy's center, surpassing the previously known disk radius of about 14 kiloparsecs (around 45,600 light-years).
The newfound stars, which formed roughly 640 million years ago, align with the galaxy's outer neutral hydrogen gas disk and previously identified ultraviolet-extended disk, supporting the idea of the galaxy's expansion through recent gas accumulation.
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