Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Serpens (Ser)  ·  Contains:  PGC 54559
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Hoag's Object, Gary Imm
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Hoag's Object

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Hoag's Object, Gary Imm
Powered byPixInsight

Hoag's Object

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Description

This object (PGC 54559) looks like a planetary nebula but is actually a tiny ring galaxy located 600 million light years away in the constellation of Serpens. It is tiny in our apparent view (only 45 seconds) but its true diameter is slightly larger than our Milky Way (about 120,000 light years).

The galaxy is named after Dr. Arthur Hoag, the American astronomer who discovered it in 1950. This object is unique amongst galaxies for its symmetry and the fact that there are few stars between the yellowish spherical core and the bluish, nearly perfect ring of stars around it. Scientists remain puzzled on how such an unusual structure was formed.

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