Figure 14-34 RIVUXG The Building Blocks of Galaxies (a) In this Hubble Space Telescope image, the objects outlined by boxes are about 3400 Mpc (11 billion ly) from Earth and are only 2000 to 3000 ly across—larger than a star cluster but smaller than even dwarf elliptical galaxies like that shown in Figure 14-9. The black squares at the top right are due to the shape of the camera. (b) Close-up images of 18 of the smallest galaxies from the constellation of Hercules. If these objects were to merge, the result would be a full-sized galaxy such as we see in the nearby universe today.