Saturday, December 8, 2012

Ring Galaxy NGC 922

Ring Galaxy NGC 922
Click on the image for full resolution (5.7 MB)

An almost complete circle of bright pink nebulae skirts around a spiral galaxy in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of NGC 922. The ring structure and the galaxy's distorted spiral shape result from a smaller galaxy scoring a cosmic bullseye, hitting the centre of NGC 922 some 330 million years ago.
The full resolution image weighs 5.7 MB, so please be patient when downloading!
Image Credit: NASA and ESA
Image enhancement: Jean-Baptiste Faure

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