Cette image peut avoir des imperfections car il s’agit d’une image historique ou de reportage.
Irregular dwarf galaxies, such as the one captured in this Hubble Space Telescope image, are actually one of the most common types of galaxy in the Universe. Known as UGC 4459, this dwarf galaxy is located approximately 11 million light-years away in the constellation of Ursa Major (The Great Bear). UGC 4459's diffused and disorganised appearance is characteristic of an irregular dwarf galaxy. Lacking a distinctive structure or shape, irregular dwarf galaxies are often chaotic in appearance, with neither a nuclear bulge, nor any trace of spiral arms. Astronomers suspect that some irregular dwarf galaxies were once spiral or elliptical galaxies, but were later deformed by the gravitational pull of nearby objects.
