Dwarf galaxy IC 3430, as captured by NASA / ESA’s Hubble Space Telescope, may be smaller than others, but the hundreds of seemingly miniature galaxies in the background prove otherwise. This galaxy is located 45 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo and part of the Virgo cluster, a rich collection of galaxies ranging in sizes, many of which are very similar in type to this diminutive galaxy.
IC 3430 boasts a smooth, oval shape while lacking any recognizable features like arms or bars. It also lacks the gas necessary to form very many new stars, but it does feature a core of hot, massive blue stars, an uncommon sight in elliptical galaxies that indicates recent star-forming activity.
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Dwarf galaxies are really just galaxies with not many stars, usually fewer than a billion, but that is often enough for them to reproduce in miniature the same forms as larger galaxies. There are dwarf elliptical galaxies like IC 3430, dwarf irregular galaxies, dwarf spheroidal galaxies and even dwarf spiral galaxies,” said the ESA.
