What is the 'Ring Galaxy' mentioned by Carl Sagan in an interview?
I suspect he might have been referring to
the 'Cartwheel Galaxy'. It is 500 million light years distant in
the constellation Sculptor. It was involved in a collision with a smaller
galaxy about 200 million years ago, whose direct collision produced the
galaxy's ring-like shape. For more information, see the
Hubble Space Telescope
web site which shows recent dramatic pictures of this galaxy taken by
astronomers Curt Struck, Philip Appleton, Kirk Borne and Ray Lucas in 1996.
Copyright 1997 Dr. Sten Odenwald
Return to
Ask the Astronomer.