The Sagittarius Dwarf is a galaxy (lying outside the Milky Way) that happens to lie within the IAU boundaries for the constellation Sagittarius. The stars that form the familiar Sagittarius figure do, indeed, lie within the Milky Way. (I glibly said that the dwarf galaxy lay outside the Milky Way, but in fact the situation is more complex. The Sky & Telescope article explains that it is in the process of being merged into the Milky Way, so one could quibble that it doesn't lie outside...) The amazing fact in the article is The dwarf galaxy's tidal tails -- drawn out in the course of several eccentric orbits around the Milky Way -- trace nearly a complete circle around the dome of the sky. Jim ---- Original message ----

Date: Fri, 3 Oct 2003 06:23:36 -0700 (PDT) From: Jim Gibson <xajax99@yahoo.com> Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Dwarf Galaxy To: "Visit http://www.utahastronomy.com for the photo gallery." <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com>

In a recent article in Sky & Telescope http://skyandtelescope.com/news/article_1058_1.asp the first sentence reads :

“September 26, 2003 | Astronomers have derived a new map of the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy, which currently is merging with the Milky Way.

I do not understand this. I thought that Sagittarius is part of the Milky Way Galaxy so is this saying that the Milky Way has a sub Dwarf Galaxy with in it?

Jim