* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: NGC 660

Blobrana · L

Poetry in Motion: Rare Polar Ring Galaxy Captured in New Image

This image of the ring galaxy NGC 660, captured with the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph on the Fredrick C. Gillett Gemini North telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii, was obtained in August of 2012. The optical image, made using g, r, I, and hydrogen alpha filters, were assigned the colours of blue, green, orange and red respectively. The field of view is 9.3x5.6 arcminutes and is oriented 8 degrees clockwise from north at right and east up. The total exposure (integration) time was 1,620 seconds cumulative for all filters.
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Blobrana · L

Polar Ring Galaxy NGC 660
Credit & Copyright: Immo Gerber and Dietmar Hager (TAO)

NGC 660 lies near the center of this intriguing field of galaxies swimming within the boundaries of the constellation Pisces. Over 20 million light-years away, its peculiar appearance marks it as a polar ring galaxy. A rare galaxy type, polar ring galaxies have a substantial population of stars, gas, and dust orbiting in rings nearly perpendicular to the plane of a flat galactic disk.

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