London: An irregular, mysterious and solitary dwarf galaxy has been spotted by the US space agency NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.
This solitary dwarf galaxy is known as UGC 4879 and is is smaller and messier than its cosmic cousins, lacking the majestic swirl of a spiral or the coherence of an elliptical.
According to the European Space Agency, the galaxy UGC 4879 consists of a scattered drizzle of stars, and is very isolated. There are about 2.3 million light years between UGC 4879 and its closest neighbour, Leo A, which is about the same distance as that between the Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way.
This discovered galaxy has not interacted with any surrounding galaxies which makes it very suitable for studying star formation uncomplicated by interactions with other galaxies.
Studies of UGC 4879 have showed a significant amount of star formation in the first four billion years after the Big Bang, followed by a strange nine-billion-year lull in star formation that ended one billion years ago by a more recent re-ignition.
The reason for this behaviour, however, remains mysterious, and the solitary galaxy continues to provide ample study material for astronomers looking to understand the complex mysteries of star birth throughout the universe.
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