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Hubble Eyes a Flock of Stars

An asymmetrical blob of bluish stars on black with golden galaxies

The glittering specks in this image that resemble 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 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.

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Acknowledgement: Luca Limatola

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Last Updated
Apr 17, 2023
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NASA Hubble Mission Team

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