National Astronomical Observatory of Japan

A Treasure Chest of Stars -- Dwarf Irregular Galaxy Sextans A

| Science

Young blue stars and older yellow and red stars shine against a dark sky like jewels in a treasure chest in this image of Sextans A from Subaru Telescope's prime focus camera Suprime-Cam.

Sextans A is a dwarf irregular galaxy belonging to a group of galaxies called the Antlia-Sextans group 5 million light years from Earth. Even though five million light years is quite distant, only about 40 galaxies are closer to our own Milky Way galaxy than Sextans A. The Antlia-Sextans group is the closest neighbor of the Local Group..

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More info: Subaru telescope web page