NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Collection

Polar Ring Galaxy NGC 2685

NGC 2685 is [ http://www.seds.org…] a confirmed polar ring galaxy - a rare type of galaxy [ http://www.seds.org…] with stars, gas and dust orbiting in rings perpendicular to the plane of a flat galactic disk. The bizarre [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] configuration could be caused by the chance capture of material [ http://www.astro.sp…] from another galaxy by a disk galaxy, with the captured debris strung out in a rotating ring. Still, observed [ http://arxiv.org/ab…] properties of NGC 2685 suggest that the rotating ring structure is remarkably old and stable. In this fascinating [ http://www.rdelsol.…] view of the peculiar system also known as Arp [ http://nedwww.ipac.…] 336 or the Helix galaxy, the strange, perpendicular rings [ http://www.obspm.fr…apr03/prg.en.shtml ] are easy to trace as they pass in front of the galactic disk, along with other disturbed outer structures. NGC 2685 is about 50,000 light-years across and 40 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major [ http://www.wikisky.…Major&zoom=2 ].

Ken Crawford [ http://rdelsol.com/…] (Rancho Del Sol Observatory [ http://rdelsol.com/])

Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)

Polar

Ursa Major

TRACE

New General Catalogue (NGC)

http://antwrp.gsfc.…

SPD-APOD-ap070216