A stunning new image taken with the Hubble Space Telescope shows the outstretched arms of a galaxy forming a nearly perfect circle around its central disk.
Formally designated MCG+07-07-072, the barred spiral galaxy is situated in the Perseus Cluster around 320 million light-years away from Earth. NASA said that the galaxy has a somewhat peculiar shape with thin, loosely wrapped arms extending from the ends of its barred core.
Because of the stars that make up its center bar-shaped structure, MCG+07-07-072 is known as a barred spiral galaxy. Despite this, the galaxy is officially classified as an SBc(r) galaxy since the spiral arms that extend from its barred core only make a partial rotation around the galaxy. “The classification of ‘ring galaxy’ is reserved for peculiar galaxies with a round ring of gas and star formation, much like spiral arms look, but completely disconnected from the galactic nucleus — or even without any visible nucleus!” NASA representatives stated.
It is believed that collisions between two or more galaxies produce ring galaxies. For instance, a wave of star formation might move as a smaller galaxy passes through the core of a larger galaxy due to the ensuing gravitational disruption.
Another possibility is that a galaxy’s ring-shaped appearance results from a phenomenon called gravitational lensing, in which the image of a background object is distorted into rings, arcs, or numerous points of light as a result of a massive foreground object warping the space around it.
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