PGC 2248 (Gary Imm)

PGC 2248

This fantastic object is a tiny lenticular ring galaxy located a half a billion light years away in the southern constellation of Sculptor at a declination of -34 degrees. The galaxy diameter is about 150,000 light-years, which is slightly larger than our Milky Way. The apparent diameter to us is about one minute.

The shape of this galaxy is fascinating to me. Scientists believe that this was originally a normal spiral galaxy which had a direct collision with a smaller galaxy many years ago. When the smaller galaxy passed through the Cartwheel Galaxy, the powerful shock wave swept outward through the galaxy. This wave impacted the dust and gas, created a void in the central area and a starburst ring around the galaxy's outer edge. Because the outer ring contains such a high number of large clusters and hot stars, the ring is one of the brightest ultraviolet objects in the entire sky. The central core of the galaxy is now seen to be re-establishing its form with arms spreading out from the center.

The identification of the galaxy which created this disturbance has been the subject of some debate. Surprisingly, the latest thinking is that it is not one of the two small galaxies (PGC 2249 & PGC 2252) closest to the Cartwheel Galaxy, to the right in my image. Instead, high resolution radio observations seem to indicate that the instigator was the small spiral galaxy toward the bottom right of the image.

Most remarkable to me about the image is the greenish tint to the star cluster at 10 o'clock in the ring. I don't understand how it could be green. This is an RGB image and the cluster clearly stands out in the G integrated sub. I don't recall seeing anything like this before in a broadband image of a galaxy. Some of the other images that I have seen of this object show a bit of a green tint to this cluster, but not to the extent that I see here.

The refractors!
Cloudy Nights
Rarely Imaged Small DSOs
ZWO ASI1600MM/QHY163M

Galaxy - Collisional Ring
Small Packages Catalog (Complete)
Starforming Outer Galaxy Arms

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	2305998
PixInsight job	UZK74AKB1BHVG36CD174XP2FRF1PEXO4
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

RA (center)	00h37m40s.943
RA (top/left)	00h37m34s.267
RA (top/right)	00h38m38s.510
RA (bottom/right)	00h37m47s.615
RA (bottom/left)	00h36m43s.828

Dec (center)	-33°42′56″.39
Dec (top/left)	-33°55′04″.15
Dec (top/right)	-33°40′09″.15
Dec (bottom/right)	-33°30′48″.38
Dec (bottom/left)	-33°45′41″.76

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PGC 2248

PGC 2248

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PGC 2248

PGC 2248

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