Cartwheel Galaxy Region
The Cartwheel is part of a group of four galaxies, as shown in this collage of images from ground-based optical and radio telescopes and the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2.
Located 500 million light-years away in the constellation Sculptor, the galaxy (located near the bottom right corner) looks like a wagon wheel. The galaxy's nucleus is the bright object in the center; the spokes 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), Jim Higdon (Australia Telescope National Facility's Paul Wild Observatory), Victor Blanco (Cerro Tololo)
About the Image
About the Object
Name: | Cartwheel Galaxy, IRAS 00352-3359 |
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Type: | Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Lenticular |
Distance: | 400 million light years |
Category: | Galaxies |