Discovery
The existence of a strong elliptical-shaped stellar over-density was reported in November 2003 by an international team of French, Italian, British and Australian astronomers, who claimed their study pointed to a newly discovered dwarf galaxy: the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy. This structure is located closer to the Sun than the center of our Galaxy, at approximately 7 kpc from the Sun.
The team of astronomers that discovered it were collaborating on analysis of data from the Two-Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS), a comprehensive survey of the sky in infrared light, which is not blocked by gas and dust as severely as visible light. Because of this technique, scientists were able to detect a very significant over-density of class M giant stars in a part of the sky occupied by the Canis Major constellation, along with several other related structures composed of this type of star, two of which form broad, faint arcs.
Read more about this topic: Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy
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