Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa)  ·  Contains:  Helix Galaxy  ·  NGC 2685  ·  PGC 25034  ·  PGC 25046
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Polar Ring Galaxy NGC2685: "Helix Galaxy", Arp 336, Mau_Bard
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Polar Ring Galaxy NGC2685: "Helix Galaxy", Arp 336

Revision title: Closeup

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Polar Ring Galaxy NGC2685: "Helix Galaxy", Arp 336, Mau_Bard
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Polar Ring Galaxy NGC2685: "Helix Galaxy", Arp 336

Revision title: Closeup

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Description

NGC 2685, also known as the Helix Galaxy and Arp 336, is a lenticular and polar ring galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major. It is about 50,000 light-years across and about 42 million light-years away from Earth. It is an object of great scientific interest, because polar-ring galaxies are very rare. They are thought to form when two galaxies gravitationally interact with each other. Polar ring galaxies are dynamically peculiar, having a ring of gas, stars and dust orbiting in a plane almost perpendicular to the normal flat plane of the host galaxy, that is, they contain two separate velocity systems whose axes are perpendicular.

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