Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have captured a striking new image of the M81 group post-starburst galaxy UGC 8201.
This image shows the dwarf irregular galaxy UCG 8201. Image credit: ESA / Hubble / NASA.
UGC 8201, also known as DDO 165, lies in the direction of the constellation Draco, approximately 15 million light-years away.
It is located on the far side of the M81 galaxy group, one of the closest neighbors to the Local Group of galaxies, which contains our own Milky Way Galaxy.
The galaxy is at an important phase in its evolution. It has recently finished a long period of star formation, which had significant impact on the whole galaxy.
This episode lasted for several hundred million years and produced a high number of newborn bright stars.
These stars can be seen in this image as the dominating light source within UGC 8201.
This process also changed the distribution and amount of dust and gas in between the stars.
Such large star formation events need extensive sources of energy to trigger them. However, compared to larger galaxies, dwarf galaxies lack such sources and they do not appear to have enough gas to produce as many new stars as they do.
This raises an important question in galaxy evolution: “how do relatively isolated, low-mass systems such as dwarf galaxies sustain star formation for extended periods of time?”
Due to its relative proximity to our Galaxy, UGC 8201 provides an opportunity to improve our understanding of how dwarf galaxies evolve and grow.
