Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 August 2015
Recent studies (Puche & Westpfahl 1994, Young & Lo 1996) have shown that the distribution of HI in some extreme low luminosity dwarf irregular galaxies (e.g. M81dwA, Holmberg I, Leo A) tends to have a ring-like (or shell-like) distribution which suggests that a single burst of star formation could expell most of the remaining ISM (or at least a large fraction of it) from the system. In view of this, Puche & Westpfahl (1994) suggested that in dwarf spheroidal galaxies, the HI should be found at large radii since no young stellar population is observed in most of them.