At first glance, this Hubble Space Telescope image seems to show an array of different cosmic objects, but the speckling of stars shown here actually forms a single body - a nearby dwarf galaxy known as Leo A. Its few million stars are so sparsely distributed that some distant background galaxies are visible through it. Leo A itself is at a distance of about 2.5 million light-years from Earth and a member of the Local Group of galaxies; a group that includes the Milky Way and the well-known Andromeda galaxy. Astronomers study dwarf galaxies because they are very numerous and are simpler in structure than their giant cousins.
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA; Acknowledgment: Judy Schmidt
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