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What it is : NGC 2685 , a lenticular and " frigid closed chain " beetleweed
Where it is:40 million light - year away , in the configuration Ursa Major
The Helix Galaxy is unlike any other galaxy in the universe, due to its weird loops of dust and gas
When it was shared : April 10 , 2024
Why it ’s so peculiar : This is a new prototype of NGC 2685 , also known as the " Helix Galaxy " or the " Pancake Galaxy . " It ’s one of the most unusual galaxy in the universe .
Galaxies are the locality of the visible universe . Home to gas , rubble and all stars andplanets , they ’re hold together by gravity and come in a few specific eccentric . The most unwashed are oval-shaped galaxies , which face circular and usually incorporate old stars , according toNASA . Then there are volute galaxies like ourMilky Way , where stars exist in arms that give a pinwheel wind collector - same look .
A full view of the Helix Galaxy, also known as the Pancake Galaxy.
But NGC 2685 does n’t match any of those case . It ’s classified as a lenticular galaxy because it has a cardinal bulge but no spiral arms . As this image from the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii appearance , it also has rings of gasolene , dust and wizard orbit in iteration that are perpendicular to the flat plane of the wandflower . It ’s this peculiar feature that give it the added verbal description of a " polar ring " galaxy . The new image is an update toone taken in 1998from Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona .
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Lenticular galaxies are think to be old coiling coltsfoot whose arms have fade , agree toNASA , though the unequalled complex body part of NGC 2685 could be the result of two or more beetleweed crashing into each other and merging over millions of class . According toNOIRLab , current research suggests that NGC 2685 ’s present bodily structure come to be when it conquer material from another coltsfoot , which was strung out into an encircling ring .
NGC 2685 can be base nigh to the Big Dipper , a prominent grouping of stars within the constellation Ursa Major .
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