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A fact from Canis Major Overdensity appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 4 August 2004. The text of the entry was as follows:
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Very on the ball! User:Wetman
I got some information for the table at [1] --BrendanRyan 14:41, 26 July 2005 (UTC)
The opening mentions that it's a Dwarf galaxy, but that article says a dwarf galaxy consists of around 10 million stars (compared to the Milky Way which has 200-400 million), whereas this article states Canis Major may contain 1 billion (10 million × 100) stars, which is considerably larger than the Milky Way itself, let alone a "dwarf" galaxy. — Vystrix Nexoth 08:13, Nov 22, 2004 (UTC)
Some additional information on this galaxy - especially on the Monoceros Ring, briefly referred to in this article - would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Brasswatchman July 31, 2005. 11:23 AM EST. Canis Major Dwarf galaxy is a very small galaxy on the verge of becoming part of the milky way itself. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.128.210.33 (talk) 00:58, 5 November 2012 (UTC)
The table has the line Constellation (({constellation name))} and I can't see it when editing the article.--BrendanRyan 08:36, 20 August 2005 (UTC)
Does the January 2006 discovery of the drawrf galaxy merging with ours count as a closer galaxy? See Milky Way article. WilliamKF 20:24, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
A major recent paper on the outer galaxy and especially on the Canis Major region rejects the idea that there is a dwarf galaxy in this direction. Instead the "overdensity" of stars in this region is caused by the extension of the Orion Spur in this direction. See:
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008ApJ...672..930V
I suggest that this article be deleted.
Kevin Jardine
Galaxy Map
80.61.70.22 (talk) 16:41, 30 June 2008 (UTC)
Quite frankly a great deal is claimed of the CMa Dwarf in this article, with no citations given, including supposed associated Galactic Globular Clusters. Just about the only place a citation is stated as being needed is when someone points out there have been several papers saying it is an overdensity of stars, and even if not such, that the papers saying it is a dwarf galaxy do not sufficiently show it to be so.
That's a bit rife in wikipedia for astronomy though, it occurs in the exoplanet sections too. Any "gee-whizz" claim gets plenty of airing, any nay sayers get deleted or requested for hard citations, and then like here, the conjectural positive stuff is apologised for and the evidence of negative stuff pedantically dismissed with nitpicking.
Science is about testing. The onus is upon the claims to be substantiated, reasonable doubt is still reasonable doubt, but in the earlier comments here it seems there are different rules for the nay saying evidence compared to the yay saying evidence.
Here's a citation, btw. http://arxiv.org/abs/0803.1509 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.166.130.187 (talk) 16:46, 2 January 2009 (UTC)
A quick search of the recent scientific literature on the Canis Major "overdensity" shows at least 8 scientific papers concluding that this phenomenon is not a dwarf galaxy or at least is more consistent with other explanations. I'm sure that a more thorough search would find more. I suggest that this article should either be deleted or at very least needs to be thoroughly rewritten to explain that a dwarf galaxy is simply one of several possible explanations for the overdensity.
See:
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009AJ....137.4412M
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008MNRAS.390L..54P
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008ASPC..393..251L
http://arxiv.org/abs/0801.2084
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007A%26A...472L..47L
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2006MNRAS.368L..77M
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2006A%26A...451..515M
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008ApJ...672..930V
Kevin Jardine
Galaxy Map
86.93.21.227 (talk) 14:24, 23 February 2010 (UTC)
I think at this point there is enough volume of scientific studies questioning the galaxy status of Canis Major to at least warrant its own section. Maybe: Galaxy status or Galaxy vs overdensity debate or something along that line. Thoughts? Gaba p (talk) 22:46, 15 April 2012 (UTC)
The lead says that it is a hypothetical galaxy and yet it has also been discovered. Last I checked you can't be a theory and a fact at the same time. If the galaxy exists shouldn't "hypothetical" be removed? Or is it only a hypothetical dwarf galaxy, meaning it's status is unknown? If so would it not read better as "is a dense region of stars, potentially a dwarf galaxy..." or something like that? Coinmanj (talk) 04:49, 5 October 2012 (UTC)
Yes you can be a theory and a fact at the same time. Theory describes facts. It does not serve as a placeholder until fact is established. Unnilnonium (talk) 14:30, 7 February 2020 (UTC)
The result of the move request was: moved. Although the category name was not directly included in this RM, I will change it also as bold editorial choice. If there is further disagreement over that choice, a new RM is welcome. Xoloz (talk) 17:26, 16 March 2014 (UTC)
Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy → Canis Major Overdensity – Whatever this is it is definitely an overdensity and this is the name it is discussed under in many sources. It is also called the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy by those who contend it is a galaxy. I suggest it is safer to frame the article as about the overdensity and then discuss the arguments which support and oppose its status as a possible galaxy, as I think the name currently is misleading Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 21:11, 21 February 2014 (UTC)
I can't find "PGC 5065047" listed in any astronomical catalogs, including PGC/LEDA [2]. What is the citation for this PGC number? Nicole Sharp (talk) 06:06, 2 February 2024 (UTC)