Transcript The 0.9 meter telescope on Kitt Peak

The 0.9 meter telescope on Kitt Peak
San Francisco
Tucson
Kitt Peak
WIYN 0.9m Partner Institutions
Indiana University
University of Florida
San Francisco State University
University of Wisconsin – Madison
University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh
University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point
University of Wisconsin – Whitewater
Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium
Wesleyan University
Yale University
research
with the
0.9 meter telescope
Searching for Compact Elliptical Galaxies
The Milky way is a member of a collection
of galaxies called the “Local Group.” The
Local Group numbers 40 galaxies and is,
by most measures, unremarkable.
NOAO 0.9m / T. Rector & B. Wolpa/ NOAO/AURA/NSF
EE.L. Wright/COBE/NASA
M32 is extremely compact;
if it were much more distant, it
might be mistaken for a star!
Yet the Local Group also includes
one of the rarest galaxies known:
M32, a compact elliptical companion
to our neighboring spiral galaxy M31.
UGC 6376 is 30 times more distant than M31.
Is one of the “stars” in this image
actually a companion galaxy like M32?
Images like this one are being taken with
the 0.9 meter telescope to help find out
Monitoring interacting binary star candidates
discovered with Chandra X-Ray Observatory