Starship Asterisk*

Polar Ring Galaxy NGC 660

Explanation: NGC 660 lies near the center of this intriguing skyscape, swimming in the boundaries of the constellation Pisces. Over 20 million light-years away, its peculiar appearance marks it as a polar ring galaxy. A rare galaxy type, polar ring galaxies have a substantial population of stars, gas, and dust orbiting in rings nearly perpendicular to the plane of the galactic disk. The bizarre configuration could have been caused by the chance capture of material from a passing galaxy by the disk galaxy, with the captured debris strung out in a rotating ring. The polar ring component can be used to explore the shape of the galaxy's otherwise unseen dark matter halo by calculating the dark matter's gravitational influence on the rotation of the ring and disk. Broader than the disk, NGC 660's ring spans about 40,000 light-years.

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The middle does sort of resemble an upside down Egyptian Ankh. Although one end is more looped than triangular.

From one of the links:

Asterisms and subdivison

* Testudo (the Turtle):[1] 24 - 27 - YY(30) - 33 - 29 Psc.[2]

This was an obsolete constellation located between the constellations of Pisces and Cetus, today constituting a natural but faint asterism, where the star 20 Psc is intended to be the head of the turtle.

!!!!

Fear the turtle!

This is a wonderful image. The central galaxy looks great! (Such a cool galaxy!) I also like this pair of spirals, one edge-on, one face-on, in the lower left of the image:

You can see many background galaxies way in the distant.

It's a gorgeous image, really.

I like the treatment of the Milky Way stars in your image processing... They really look much closer than the galaxy (which of course they are).

-Noel

Kind of like a wheel within a wheel!

The picture is beautiful ... The first thing I thought was ... "Do you suppose this could be two galaxies interacting? One passing through the other?" I do know there are some simulations of how two galaxies interact gravitationally so I wonder it this particular orientation could result?