The Cartwheel Galaxy
Located 500 million light-years away in the constellation Sculptor, the galaxy looks like a wagon wheel. The galaxy's nucleus is the bright object in the center of the image; the spoke-like structures are wisps of material connecting the nucleus to the outer ring of young stars. The galaxy's unusual configuration was created by a nearly head-on collision with a smaller galaxy about 200 million years ago.
Credit:Curt Struck and Philip Appleton (Iowa State University), Kirk Borne (Hughes STX Corporation), and Ray Lucas ( Space Telescope Science Institute), and NASA/ESA
About the Image
About the Object
Name: | Cartwheel Galaxy |
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Type: | Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Lenticular |
Distance: | 400 million light years |
Constellation: | Sculptor |
Category: | Galaxies |