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Re:Astronomers discovered 1M new galaxies in just 300 hours by kevdev on Sunday January 29, 2023 @10:35AM (#34569005)
Potentially dumb question: when astronomers see a new galaxy, how do they know it’s never been discovered before? Is there some database of known galaxies that they use? Presumably there’s something measurable that they’re using to identify galaxies as well.
Re:Astronomers discovered 1M new galaxies in just 300 hours by bibanez on Sunday January 29, 2023 @10:39AM (#34569048)
Every object in the sky has precise absolute coordinates. As far as I know, there is not a comprehensive database of all sky objects but several databases from different sky surveys that map only a part of the sky. To check if the object is new, you just look up the coordinates in a program that aggregates all the different databases, like Simbad (https://simbad.cds.unistra.fr)
Re:Astronomers discovered 1M new galaxies in just 300 hours by sb8244 on Sunday January 29, 2023 @10:53AM (#34569177)
Does the current location of the earth affect that coordinate system at all, or i is negligible due to distances?
Re:Astronomers discovered 1M new galaxies in just 300 hours by jfengel on Sunday January 29, 2023 @11:42AM (#34569812)
They use a Galactic Coordinate System, which is actually centered on the Sun, in the plane of the galaxy. (The sun does revolve around the galaxy, but with a period of millions of years it doesn't make a measurable difference.)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galactic_coordinate_system

It can easily be transformed into telescope pointing directions with the input of location on the planet, time of year and time of day.

Re:Astronomers discovered 1M new galaxies in just 300 hours by euroderf on Sunday January 29, 2023 @12:48PM (#34570594)
IIRC the Earth has made 2.5 orbits about the galactic center since its [the Earth's] formation.
Re:Astronomers discovered 1M new galaxies in just 300 hours by dwaltrip on Sunday January 29, 2023 @09:08PM (#34575044)
The period is ~250 million years. Quite the journey! :)
Re:Astronomers discovered 1M new galaxies in just 300 hours by BurningFrog on Sunday January 29, 2023 @12:18PM (#34570258)
Up to ~300 light years away this effect can be used to estimate the distance to a star.

For other galaxies the effect is very much indistinguishable from 0.

https://lco.global/spacebook/distance/parallax-and-distance-...