The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has imaged an ancient and faint dwarf galaxy called LEDA 677373.
This Hubble image shows the dwarf galaxy LEDA 677373. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.
LEDA 677373, also known as HIDEEP J1337-3320, lies roughly 14.8 million light-years away and spans 1,430 light-years.
It is a member of the Centaurus A/Messier 83 Group, a complex group of galaxies in the constellations Hydra, Centaurus, and Virgo.
Dwarf galaxies such as LEDA 677373 are small, faint collections of stars and gas.
Their diverse properties make them intriguing objects to astronomers, but their small size means that we can only explore those that lie closest to us, within the Local Group of Galaxies.
LEDA 677373 contains a plentiful reservoir of gas from which it could form stars. However, it stubbornly refuses to do so.
In a bid to find out why, astronomers imaged the galaxy’s individual stars at different wavelengths.
LEDA 677373 among foreground stars and background galaxies. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.
These observations showed that LEDA 677373 has been around for at least 6 billion years – plenty of time to form stars.
So why has it not done so? Rather than being stubborn, this galaxy seems to have been the unfortunate victim of a cosmic crime.
A nearby giant spiral galaxy, Messier 83 (M83, Southern Pinwheel Galaxy, NGC 5236), seems to be stealing gas from LEDA 677373, stopping new stars from being born.
