Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy

Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy — galaxy, explore its interactive 3D model in Cosmoscope.

Explore Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy in an interactive 3D view of space. See its catalogue position, distance and astronomical facts.

A small galaxy on a looping orbit over the poles of the Milky Way, hidden behind the crowded centre of our Galaxy until 1994. Each close pass strips away more of its stars, which now trail in two long streams that wrap around the sky. These are its real red giant stars, at their measured positions and RR Lyrae distances.

Type

Dwarf spheroidal galaxy, being torn apart by the Milky Way

Distance

86,000 light-years, beyond the centre of our Galaxy

Found

1994 (Ibata, Gilmore & Irwin)

At its heart

The globular cluster M54

Shown here

55,192 red giants picked out by Vasiliev, Belokurov & Erkal (2021), each at its real sky position; colours from Gaia DR3

Its stream

15,000 of them trail around the sky, out to 180,000 light-years

Depth

Each star at the distance of the RR Lyrae stars around it; its spread along our line of sight is illustrative

Explore Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy in 3D

Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy is placed in three-dimensional space using catalogue coordinates and an adopted astronomical distance. Rotate and zoom to explore the model. Stellar surfaces, gas structure and dust depths may be reconstructed or illustrative, as described in its facts; this is not live imagery from a telescope.