An Intimate Look at an Obscure Dwarf (2013)

This is a dwarf galaxy known as MCG09-20-131. Interestingly, it’s very close to us, so we can see some individual stars within it. Dwarf galaxies don’t get nearly as much attention as bigger, brighter galaxies. You might even mistake this for a local cluster of stars within our own Milky Way but at 6.5 million light years away it’s definitely not part of our galaxy. The red blob is a nebula glowing in H-alpha surrounding some bright, blue, young stars. Information obtained from the proposal for this object, here. There is some much more specific information contained in the abstract if you wish to know more.

Red: HST_10843_a1_ACS_WFC_F658N_sci + HST_10843_01_ACS_HRC_F814W_sci
Green: HST_10843_01_ACS_HRC_F550M_sci
Blue: HST_10843_01_ACS_HRC_F330W_sci

North is NOT up. It is 28° counter-clockwise from up.

Copyright information:
Hubble data is public domain, but I put a lot of work into combining it into beautiful color images. The minimal credit line should read: NASA / ESA / J. Schmidt

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.