Leo V

Leo V is a dwarf spheroidal galaxy located at the distance of about 180 kpc from the Milky Way. It is classified as a dwarf spheroidal galaxy (dSph) meaning that it has an approximately spherical shape with the half-light radius of about 130 pc.

Leo V is one of the smallest and fainest satellites of the Milky Way — its absolute visible magnitude of about −5.2 ± 0.4 is much lower than the luminosity of a typical globular cluster. However, its mass is about 330 thousand stellar masses, which means that Leo V's mass to light ratio is around 75. A relatively high mass to light ratio implies that Leo V is dominated by dark matter. The stellar population of Leo V consists mainly of old stars formed more than 12 billion years ago. The metallicity of these stars is also very low at [Fe/H] ≈ −2.0 ± 0.2, which means that they contain less heavy elements.

The galaxy is located close to another Milky Way's satellite, Leo IV. These two galaxies may be physically associated with each other. There is evidence that they are connected by a star bridge.