Friday, November 16, 2012

APOD 2.4: Polar Ring Galaxy NGC 660


The photo, taken by Travis Rector at the Gemini Observatory using the Gemini North telescope on Mauna Kea, features Polar Ring Galaxy NGC 660. It is very bizarre but smooth image of a cosmic entity that is 20 million light-years away and within the Pisces constellation. Polar Ring galaxies are rare, and  consist of a lot of stars, gas, and dust that orbits in rings that are perpendicular to the galactic disk plane (the plane at which all the spirals and bars and galaxies exist). The configuration is shaped in this odd way as it could have picked up material from disk galaxy on a rotating ring, thus creating the pink star regions. NGC 660 spans over 50,000 light years.

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