Red nugget

Red nuggets is the nickname given to rare, unusually small galaxies packed with large amounts of red stars where star formation has been quenched. They were originally observed by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2005. They are ancient remnants of the first massive galaxies and are more likely to be found at higher redshifts. The environments of red nuggets are usually consistent with the general elliptical galaxy population. Most red nuggets have merged with other galaxies, but some managed to stay unscathed. The most studied red nugget galaxy is NGC 1277.