Hoag’s Object by Hubble Heritage on Flickr.
Via Flickr:
A nearly perfect ring of hot, blue stars pinwheels about the yellow nucleus of an unusual galaxy known as Hoag’s Object. This image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captures a face-on view of the galaxy’s ring of stars, revealing more detail than any existing photo of this object. The image may help astronomers unravel clues on how such strange objects form.

The entire galaxy is about 120,000 light-years wide, which is slightly larger than our Milky Way Galaxy. The blue ring, which is dominated by clusters of young, massive stars, contrasts sharply with the yellow nucleus of mostly older stars. What appears to be a “gap” separating the two stellar populations may actually contain some star clusters that are almost too faint to see. Curiously, an object that bears an uncanny resemblance to Hoag’s Object can be seen in the gap at the one o’clock position. The object is probably a background ring galaxy.

heritage.stsci.edu/2002/21/
02-21

2:28 PM EST

81 notes

Source

Via

High-res

#astronomy

#Hubble

#HST

#Heritage

#galaxy

#Serpens

#WFPC2

Elliptical Galaxy; ESO 307-17

Located nearly half a billion light-years from Earth, ESO 306-17, is a large, bright elliptical galaxy in the southern sky of a type known as a fossil group. Astronomers use this term to emphasise the isolated nature of these galaxies. However, are they like fossils — the last remnants of a once active community — or is it more sinister than that? Did ESO 306-17 gobble up its next-door neighbours?