Andromeda IX

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Andromeda IX (And 9) is a dwarf spheroidalsatellite of the Andromeda Galaxy. It was discovered in 2004 by resolved stellar photometry from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), by Zucker et al. (2004). At the time of its discovery, it was the galaxy with the lowest known surface brightness, ΣV ≃ 26.8mags arcsec and the faintest galaxy known from its intrinsic absolute brightness. It was found from data acquired within an SDSS scan along the major axis of M31, on October 5, 2002.

Dwarf spheroidal galaxyA dwarf spheroidal galaxy (dSph) is a term in astronomy applied to small, low-luminosity galaxies with very little dust and an older stellar population. They are found in the Local Group as companions to the Milky Way and as systems that are companions to the Andromeda Galaxy (M31).

List of Andromeda's satellite galaxiesThe Andromeda Galaxy (M31) has satellite galaxies just like the Milky Way. Orbiting M31 are at least 35 dwarf galaxies: the brightest and largest is M110, which can be seen with a basic telescope. The second-brightest and closest one to M31 is M32.

Andromeda GalaxyBarred spiral galaxy in the Local GroupThe Andromeda Galaxy is a barred spiral galaxy and is the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way. It was originally named the Andromeda Nebula and is cataloged as Messier 31, M31, and NGC 224. Andromeda has a D25 isophotal diameter of about 46.56 kiloparsecs (152,000 light-years) and is approximately 765 kpc (2.5 million light-years) from Earth.

Star formationStar formation is the process by which dense regions within molecular clouds in interstellar space—sometimes referred to as "stellar nurseries" or "star-forming regions"—collapse and form stars. As a branch of astronomy, star formation includes the study of the interstellar medium (ISM) and giant molecular clouds (GMC) as precursors to the star formation process, and the study of protostars and young stellar objects as its immediate products.

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