Leo A

Leo A, also called Leo III, is a small, unusual galaxy in the group of galaxies near our own, called the Local Group. It is about 2.6 million light-years from Earth. The astronomer Fritz Zwicky first saw it in 1942. Scientists think this galaxy has a mass of about eighty million times the mass of our Sun. Most of this mass is a mysterious kind of matter called dark matter.

What makes Leo A special is that most of its stars were born only in the last eight billion years, even though the galaxy is much older. This suggests it had a very different history than most galaxies. The gas in Leo A is spread out in a lumpy ring and does not spin like our own Milky Way galaxy. There are also areas in Leo A where new stars are forming, powered by very hot and bright young stars.