What is a Hobbit Galaxy?
The term “hobbit galaxy” has been used recently to refer to galaxies even smaller than dwarf galaxies, which contain a few million stars. Hobbit galaxies only contain a few hundred thousand stars, similar to a large star cluster within a galaxy. By comparison, our own Milky Way contains 200-400 billion stars, more stars than there are galaxies in the universe. The term “hobbit galaxy,” being new, has not yet acquired a distinct definition. The only galaxy that unquestionably fits the label is Leo T, a galaxy discovered as recently as 2007 during the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The designation “T” indicates that Leo is a transitional object between a galaxy and something else. Located 1.4 million light years distant, Leo T is beyond the gravitational influence of the Milky Way. Leo T has a luminosity equal to only 50,000 Suns, unprecedented for a galaxy. The Milky Way is also orbited by at least seven small galaxies usually called dwarf galaxies, which may actually qualify for hobbit gala
