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ring galaxy

Cartwheel Galaxy

Ring galaxy formed when another galaxy punched through its disc, sending out a ring-shaped shockwave.

🚀 Travel there

What it is

Ring galaxy: A galaxy shot clean through the middle by another. Every kind of thing there is →

Can you see it?

No. No telescope on Earth will show you this one; it is here to be understood, not seen. It is here because it is worth knowing about — and because leaving it out would make the sky look emptier than it is.

Worth knowing about the Cartwheel Galaxy

On that same scale, the Cartwheel Galaxy would be about 500 kilometers away -- roughly a long day's drive. Light takes 500.0 million years to get here from the Cartwheel Galaxy, so what you are looking at is the Cartwheel Galaxy as it was 500.0 million years ago.

What it is made of
A ring galaxy -- an unusual shape caused by another galaxy punching straight through its disc.
What makes it worth knowing
The impact sent a ring-shaped shockwave rippling outward, triggering a wave of new star formation around the rim. Ring galaxies like this are rare.
Its name and its story
Discovered 1941 by Fritz Zwicky, the same astronomer who a decade earlier first proposed dark matter.
The numbers
Distance from us~500 million light-years

How anyone knows this

Nobody flew a tape measure out there. Every number on this page was worked out from the ground:

Next to it

Hoag's Objectring galaxyNot observableAndromeda Galaxy (M31)spiral galaxyNaked eyeTriangulum Galaxy (M33)spiral galaxyWith effortLarge Magellanic Cloudirregular galaxyNaked eyeBode's Galaxy (M81)spiral galaxyWith effortWhirlpool Galaxy (M51)spiral galaxyWith effort

Then go outside

Not this one. But the sky over your head is full of ones you can see, and the Planetarium knows which.

🌙 Plan an evening outside🌌 Everything else in the sky