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Credit & Copyright: CHART32 Team,
Processing -
Johannes Schedler
Explanation:
NGC 660 is featured in
this
cosmic snapshot.
Over 40 million light-years away and swimming within
the boundaries of the
constellation Pisces,
NGC 660's peculiar appearance marks it as
a polar ring galaxy.
A rare galaxy type, polar ring galaxies have a substantial population
of stars, gas, and dust
orbiting in rings strongly tilted
from
the plane of the galactic disk.
The bizarre-looking
configuration could have been caused by the chance capture
of material from a passing galaxy by a disk galaxy, with the captured
debris eventually strung out in a rotating ring.
The violent gravitational interaction would account
for the myriad pinkish star forming regions scattered along NGC 660's
ring.
The
polar ring component can also be used
to explore the shape of the galaxy's otherwise unseen
dark matter halo by calculating the
dark matter's gravitational
influence on the rotation of the ring and disk.
Broader than the disk, NGC 660's ring spans over 50,000 light-years.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: galaxies - polar ring
Publications with words: galaxies - polar ring
See also:
- APOD: 2024 December 18 Á NGC 660: Polar Ring Galaxy
- Stellar Streams in the Local Universe
- APOD: 2024 April 15 Á The Cigar Galaxy from Hubble and Webb
- APOD: 2024 March 20 Á The Eyes in Markarians Galaxy Chain
- APOD: 2023 September 13 Á NGC 4632: Galaxy with a Hidden Polar Ring
- APOD: 2023 August 2 Á M82: Galaxy with a Supergalactic Wind
- In the Heart of the Virgo Cluster