A team of astronomers has made the largest-ever detection of rings around a galaxy using data from the NASA Hubble Space Telescope and the Keck Cosmic Web Imager. The galaxy, known as LEDA 1313424 or “The Bullseye,” has nine distinct ring systems, exceeding any previous telescope’s findings in any galaxy.
LEDA 1313424 is located 567 million light-years away and has a diameter of 250,000 light-years – nearly two-and-a-half times larger than the Milky Way Galaxy. The discovery was made by Yale University doctoral student Imad Pasha, who observed the galaxy’s clear rings and pinpointed their locations using Hubble’s high-resolution vision.
The collision between the blue dwarf galaxy that struck LEDA 1313424 about 50 million years ago created ten ring systems around the galaxy, with nine of these now detected. A thin trail of gas links the two galaxies, separated by 130,000 light-years.
According to researchers, viewing the galaxy from a slight angle reveals the uneven spacing of its rings, unlike those on a dartboard. The Hubble image shows the galaxy from an angle, where the rings appear more circular and bunched up at the center.
The discovery aligns with long-standing theories about ring galaxies, which predicts that their ring systems would move outward almost exactly as observed in LEDA 1313424. This confirmation is a significant breakthrough for astronomers studying these enigmatic objects.
The findings were published today in the Astrophysical Journal Letters and contribute to our understanding of galaxy evolution and collisions.
Source: https://www.sci.news/astronomy/nine-star-filled-rings-giant-galaxy-13638.html