The Phoenix Dwarf is a dwarf galaxy and an irregular galaxy that was discovered in 1976 by Hans-Emil Schuster and Richard Martin West and mistaken for a globular cluster. It is currently 1.44 Mly away from Earth. Its name comes from the fact that it is part of the Phoenix constellation.

Characteristics

The Phoenix dwarf has an inner part of young stars running in an east-west direction and an outer part of mainly old stars that runs north-south. The central region's rate of star formation seems to have been relatively constant across time (Martínez-Delgado et al. 1999). In 1999, St-Germain et al. discovered a H I region of about 10⁵ M_☉ just to the west of Phoenix. Its radial velocity is -23 km/sec and may be physically associated with Phoenix if it is found to have a similar radial velocity.

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