Ursa Minor Ursa Minor Ursa Minor (Latin: "Lesser Bear", contrasting with Ursa Major), also known as the Little Bear, is a constellation in the Northern Sky. Like the Great Bear, the tail of the Little Bear may also be seen as the handle of a ladle, hence the North American name, Little Dipper: seven stars with four in its bowl like its partner the Big Dipper. It was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy, and remains one of the 88 modern constellations. Ursa Minor has traditionally been important for navigation, particularly by mariners, because of Polaris being
Ursa Major II Dwarf II consists mainly of old stars formed at least 10 billion years ago. The metallicity of these old stars is also very low at , which means that they contain 300 times less heavy elements than the Sun. The stars of Uma II were probably among the first stars to form in the Universe. Currently there is no star formation in Uma II. The measurements have so far failed to detect any neutral hydrogen in it—the upper limit is only 562 solar masses. Ursa Major II Dwarf Ursa Major II Dwarf (UMa II dSph) is a dwarf spheroidal galaxy situated