Number 174 (Story #2), April 15, 1994 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein A NEW NEAREST GALACTIC NEIGHBOR to the Milky Way has been discovered by astronomers at the Royal Greenwich Observatory and at Cambridge University (Mike Irwin, 44- 022-333-7524), who reported their finding last week at the European and National Astronomy Meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland. The object in question, a dwarf spheroidal galaxy only 80,000 light years from our solar system in the constellation Sagittarius, had not previously been discovered because our line of sight to the galaxy passed through the heart of the Milky Way, a place already rich in stars. The Sagittarius dwarf is about 1000 light years across and is apparently in the process of being pulled apart by the gravitational pull of the Milky Way, which now is known to have 11 satellite galaxies. (Science News, 9 April.)