Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
Acknowledgement: Luca Limatola
Acknowledgement: Luca Limatola
The glittering specks in this image, resembling a distant flock of
flying birds, are the stars that make up the dwarf galaxy ESO 540-31.
Captured in this new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, the
dwarf galaxy lies just over 11 million light-years from Earth, in the
constellation of Cetus (The Whale). The background of this image is full
of many other galaxies, all located at vast distances from us.
Dwarf galaxies are the among the smaller and dimmer members of the
galactic family, typically only containing around a few hundred million
stars. Although this sounds like a large number, it is small when
compared to spiral galaxies like our Milky Way, which are made up of
hundreds of billions of stars.
A version of this image was entered into the Hubble’s Hidden Treasures image processing competition by contestant Luca Limatola.
Source: ESA/Hubble - Space Telescope
