NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope recently shared an image of a small dwarf galaxy – UGCA 307 that appears to be nothing more than a fuzzy piece of passing cloud. In this image, the galaxy hangs against an irregular backdrop of distant galaxies.
Located about 26 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Corvus, the small galaxy is made up of a diffuse band of stars with red gas bubbles that identify areas of recent star formation. It just seems like a little piece of stars.
This image is part of a Hubble mission to explore all known nearby galaxies and provide astronomers with information about our galaxy’s environment. Before these studies, Hubble examined about 75 percent of neighboring galaxies in sufficient detail to identify the brightest stars and develop knowledge of the stars that make up each galaxy. Taking advantage of short gaps in Hubble’s viewing schedule, this mission attempted to survey the remaining 25% of neighboring galaxies.
This crystal-clear image was captured by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), installed on the telescope in 2002 during Servicing Mission 3B. The ACS replaced one of Hubble’s original instruments, the Faint Object Camera, which had been built by ESA.
