This
Astrobin Debut Object is a collisional ring galaxy located 0.6 billion light years away in the constellation of Cetus at a declination of -9 degrees. It is a magnitude 14.3 Seyfert galaxy which spans 1 arc-minutes in our apparent view. This corresponds to a large diameter of 150,000 light years.
Collisional ring galaxies may be my favorite type of DSO. This is the 17th collisional ring galaxy that I have imaged. Collisional ring galaxies occur when a larger galaxy is hit head-on by a smaller galaxy along its polar axis. The collision creates an expanding density wave of star formation, leading to the creation of a hole in the larger galaxy, which then develops into a ring. The ring in NGC 985 is easy to see, as well as a plume extending down and to left. This plume is likely a result of the galaxy collision.
The core remnant of the larger galaxy is usually found on the ring, as in this case. Studies have concluded that there are actually 2 galaxy cores remnants in NGC 985. Those cores are blown out in the Hubble image and can't be seen. You can see them in my image - the larger galaxy core remnant is seen in bright white, and the smaller galaxy remnant core is seen as an amber colored dot just 4 arc-seconds above and right of the white core. I thought at first that this was a dust lane of some sort, but several papers have studied it and concluded that it is the core of the galaxy which impacted NGC 985.
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