Author: B. Koribalski (CSIRO ATNF)

We report an upper limit of 2 x 10 ⁵ solar masses for the HI mass of the southern dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxy SGC 0224.3-7345 (also known as PGC 009140 and [KK2000]03 = KKs 3). This small galaxy, shown above in the center of the Digitised Sky Survey B-band image (left), is located just outside the Local Group ( Whiting et al. 2002 , 2007 ). The newly measured distance of 2.12 Mpc (by Karachentsev, Makarova, Makarov, Tully and Rizzi 2014, MNRAS Letters, in press ) puts it at the same distance as the Sculptor Group galaxies NGC 55 and NGC 300 ( Westmeier et al. 2011 , 2013 ). High resolution 21-cm HI observations towards the dSph galaxy were obtained with CSIRO’s Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA; right image). No hydrogen gas (HI) is detected at the position of the dwarf galaxy, which lies behind the Magellanic Bridge. Contours show HI emission from a tidal filament connecting the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds ( Muller et al. 2003 ), at a velocity of about 200 km/s.