Leo A is a dwarf galaxy about 2.5 million light-years away, a small member of the Local Group that includes the Milky Way and Andromeda. Its few million stars are spread so thinly that Hubble can see faint background galaxies through the gaps. It is one of the most isolated galaxies in its group and has no obvious spiral or bar, just a roughly spherical cloud of stars. Oddly, about 90 percent of its stars are less than eight billion years old, so it kept forming stars long after most galaxies of its size had finished. Astronomers are still working out why its star formation waited so long.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.