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Utilizing information from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the Keck Cosmic Web Imager (KCWI) at W.M. Keck Observatory, astronomers have actually determined 9 rings– more than formerly found by any telescope in any galaxy– around the collisional ring galaxy LEDA 1313424.
Pasha et aldiscovered 9 rings around LEDA 1313424, a ring galaxy roughly 567 million light-years away in the constellation of Pisces. They likewise verified which galaxy dove through LEDA 1313424, developing these rings: the blue dwarf galaxy that sits to its instant center-left. Image credit: NASA/ ESA/ Hubble/ Imad Pasha & Pieter van Dokkum, Yale University.
LEDA 1313424 is a ring galaxy found in 2019 in the images from the Legacy Survey DR9.
Nicknamed the Bullseye, the galaxy has a redshift of z=0.0394, representing a range of 567 million light-years.
LEDA 1313424 has a size of 250,000 light-years– practically two-and-a-half times bigger than our Milky Way Galaxy.
“This was a serendipitous discovery,” stated Imad Pasha, a doctoral trainee at Yale University.
“I was taking a look at a ground-based imaging study and when I saw a galaxy with numerous clear rings, I was right away drawn to it. I needed to stop to examine it.”
A little blue dwarf galaxy took a trip like a dart through the core of LEDA 1313424 about 50 million years back.
The crash developed 10 rings around LEDA 1313424, an unmatched 9 of which are identified.
A thin path of gas now connects the set, though they are presently separated by 130,000 light-years.
“We’re capturing the Bullseye at an extremely unique minute in time,” stated Yale University’s Professor Pieter van Dokkum.
“There’s an extremely narrow window after the effect when a galaxy like this would have numerous rings.”
The scientists utilized Hubble’s crisp vision to thoroughly to determine the place of 8 of LEDA 1313424’s rings and likewise utilized Keck to verify another ring.
They likewise discovered a sensational connection in between the ring galaxy and a long-established theory: the galaxy’s rings appear to have actually moved external practically precisely as forecasted by designs.
“That theory was established for the day that somebody saw many rings,” Professor van Dokkum stated.
“It is exceptionally pleasing to validate this enduring forecast with the Bullseye galaxy.”
If seen from above, it would be more apparent that the galaxy’s rings aren’t uniformly spaced like those on a dart board. Hubble’s image reveals the galaxy from a small angle.
“If we were to look down at the galaxy straight, the rings would look circular, with rings bunched up at the center and slowly ending up being more spaced out the further out they are,” Pasha described.
A paper about this discovery was released today in the Astrophysical Journal Letters
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Imad Pasha et al2025. The Bullseye: HST, Keck/KCWI, and Dragonfly Characterization of a Giant Nine-Ringed Galaxy. ApJL 980, L3; doi: 10.3847/ 2041-8213/ ad9f5c
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