Image Credit: Hubble, NASA, ESA
The Hubble Space Telescope recently captured this image of a quaint little galaxy located approximately 15 million light-years from Earth (toward the constellation of Draco). Called
UGC 8201 (otherwise known as DDO 165), it's a dwarf galaxy by classification.
While it certainly doesn't have the flashiness of its larger counterparts—no bright central core, no halo, and no clearly defined spiral arms—it does boast several neat features. Perhaps most importantly, it appears to be on the other end of a starburst phase, which tapered off a few million years ago.
At its peak, it likely birthed hundreds of thousands of new stars, which forever changed the internal dynamics, including the distribution of gas and dust within the interstellar medium (that is, the space that separates stars). This, in turn, will affect star formation moving forward.
UGC 8201 might someday undergo another starburst phase. It seems likely that UGC 8201 might someday undergo another starburst phase, being that it belongs to the
Messier 81 (M81) galaxy group: one of the closest neighbors of our own local group (which includes notable galaxies like the MIlky Way and Andromeda, along with around 40 others). However. the ESA notes:
[box style="0"]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 unanswered 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 Earth UGC 8201 is an excellent object for research and provides an opportunity to improve our understanding of how dwarf galaxies evolve and grow.
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