UCG 8201 is about 15 million light-years away in the direction of the constellation Draco, which makes the irregular dwarf galaxy a relatively close neighbor. UCG 8201 is on the far side of the M81 galaxy group, which contains our home galaxy, the Milky Way.
UCG 8201 has reached an interesting point in its evolution, according to Sci-News.com, because it has come to the end of a long period of star birth that lasted for "several hundred million years."
The newborn stars are seen as the brightest spots in the image captured by the Hubble. The period of star formation is intriguing because events like that require incredible amounts of energy, but dwarf galaxies lack the energy, dust and gases needed to trigger such productive star formation phenomenons.
The question astronomers are trying to answer now, according to Sci-News.com: "How do relatively isolated, low-mass systems such as dwarf galaxies sustain star formation for extended periods of time?"
UCG 8201's relative proximity to the Earth should provide astronomers with an opportunity to find the answer.
