Where In The Universe #83

It’s time once again for another Where In The Universe Challenge. Test your visual knowledge of the cosmos by naming where in the Universe this image was taken and give yourself extra points if you can name the spacecraft responsible for this picture. Post your guesses in the comments section, and check back later at this same post to find the answer. To make this challenge fun for everyone, please don’t include links or extensive explanations with your answer. Good luck!

UPDATE: The answer has now been posted below.

This nearly perfect ring of hot, blue stars around a yellow nucleus is the very unusual galaxy known as Hoag’s Object. The Hubble Space Telescope captured this face-on view of the galaxy’s ring of stars, revealing more detail than any other existing photo of this object. The image may help astronomers unravel clues on how such strange objects form.

The entire galaxy is about 120,000 light-years wide, which is slightly larger than our Milky Way Galaxy.

Great job, everyone, and check back next week for anther WITU challenge!

14 Replies to “Where In The Universe #83”

  1. It is Hoag’s object as Mr. Hanford so quickly stated. But let me be the first to mention the second ring galaxy that is seen inside this galaxy. A wedding ring and an engagement ring?

  2. I am late again. I third the assessments above. I had to look this up, for this is a crazy galaxy!. How in tarnation did this galaxy get like that! It would be curious to see that nucleus close up.

    LC

  3. As above, lovely galaxy, very strange formation and indeed even rarer to see another one in the background.

  4. Can we get a closeup of the second Einstein ring to see if we hit the lottery and have a third one as well.

  5. Oops. Einstein rings are gravitational lensing phenomenon and this certainly is not. Better get my vocabulary back in order.

    Would be amazing if we could see a 3rd Hoag’s object in the smaller one though.

  6. Way cool! And that space between the ring and the yellowish stars in the center is NOT empty – just full of faint reddish stars. I would like to this puppy in infrared!

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