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
NASA press release
| Id: | opo9636a1 |
| Type: | Observation |
| Release date: | 26 November 1996, 06:00 |
| Size: | 363 x 444 px |
About the Object
| Name: | Cartwheel Galaxy |
| Type: | • Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Lenticular |
| Distance: | 400 million light years |
