Ancient, isolated dwarf galaxy discovered nearby

Ars Technica : A new dwarf galaxy, KKs 3, has been discovered about 6.9 million light-years from Earth, just outside the Local Group of galaxies, which includes the Milky Way. Detected by the Hubble Space Telescope, the galaxy has a mass of just 23 million solar masses (the Milky Way has 1 trillion solar masses). KKs 3 has three major populations of stars, the oldest and most numerous population being 12 billion years old, and the youngest, 2 billion. That means that the galaxy first formed soon after the universe itself, which is 13.8 billion years old. The oldest set of stars—predominantly red giants—make up nearly three-quarters of the galaxy’s stellar mass. Its location outside of the Local Group suggests that KKs 3 hasn’t interacted with any other galaxies in at least 10 billion years and, because of the expansion of the universe, likely will continue to remain isolated.