A galaxy with barely any stars has been discovered lurking near Andromeda. It’s one of the faintest ever found—and it could rewrite what we know about how galaxies form.
Andromeda XXXVI: A faint stellar cluster revealed between two bright stars. (Credit: arXiv, 2026)
Discovered initially by amateur astronomer Giuseppe Donatiello through visual inspection of survey images, then confirmed and analyzed by an international team of professional astronomers.
A newly discovered ultra-faint dwarf galaxy named Andromeda XXXVI—one of the dimmest and most compact galaxies ever detected.
In the halo of the Andromeda Galaxy, about 2.5 million light-years from Earth. A satellite of Andromeda Galaxy, located about 119 kiloparsecs (≈388,000 light-years) from Andromeda’s center.
Reported in 2026, based on recent deep imaging and survey data.
Ultra-faint dwarf galaxies are believed to be relics of the early universe, offering clues about dark matter and galaxy formation.
Scientists spotted a subtle “overdensity” of stars in survey data, then confirmed it using deeper imaging techniques and stellar population analysis.
This galaxy is so faint it may contain only a few thousand stars—compared to the Milky Way’s hundreds of billions.
This isn’t just a new galaxy—it’s a clue that the universe may be filled with hidden, nearly invisible galaxies we haven’t detected yet.
Each one could hold answers about the earliest moments after the Big Bang.