The Cartwheel Galaxy
Depicts: The Cartwheel Galaxy, IRAS 00352-3359
Copyright: Curt Struck and Philip Appleton (Iowa State University), Kirk Borne (Hughes STX Corporation), and Ray Lucas (Space Telescope Science Institute), and NASA
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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.
Last Update: 1 September 2019
