Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Pisces (Psc)  ·  Contains:  NGC 660
NGC 660, a starburst polar-ring galaxy, Jan Scheers
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NGC 660, a starburst polar-ring galaxy

NGC 660, a starburst polar-ring galaxy, Jan Scheers
Powered byPixInsight

NGC 660, a starburst polar-ring galaxy

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Description

NGC 660 is a peculiar and unique polar-ring galaxy located approximately 45 million light-years from Earth in the Pisces constellation.

A rare galaxy type, polar-ring galaxies have a substantial population of stars, gas, and dust orbiting in rings strongly tilted from the plane of the galactic disk. The bizarre-looking configuration could have been caused by the chance capture of material from a passing galaxy by a disk galaxy, with the captured debris eventually strung out in a rotating ring. The violent gravitational interaction would account for the myriad star forming regions scattered along NGC 660's ring. Broader than the disk, NGC 660's ring spans over 50,000 light-years.

This image is acquired with the ASA RC-1000AZ telescope and FLI PL16803 CCD-camera from Telescope Live in El Sauce Observatory, Chile.
Total exposure time: 160 minutes. LRGB 6:4:2:4 subs of 600s with each filter.

Processing with AstroPixelProcessor, Photoshop CC with AstroPanel V4.2, Astronomy Tools, Topaz Sharpen AI and Denoise Projects 3 plug-ins.

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NGC 660, a starburst polar-ring galaxy, Jan Scheers