| Hoag's Object | |
|---|---|
 Hoag's Object, taken by theHubble Space Telescope in July 2001 | |
| Observation data (J2000epoch) | |
| Constellation | Serpens Caput |
| Right ascension | 15h 17m 14.4s[1] |
| Declination | +21° 35′ 08″[1] |
| Redshift | 12740±50 km/s[1][2] |
| Distance | 612.8±9.4 Mly (187.9±2.9 Mpc)[2][a] |
| Apparent magnitude (B) | 16.2[1] |
| Characteristics | |
| Type | (RP)E0 or (RP)SA0/a[3] |
| Size | 48.89kiloparsecs (159,000light-years)[1][4] |
| Apparent size (V) | 0.28′ × 0.28′[1] |
| Notable features | Ring galaxy |
| Other designations | |
| PGC 54559,[1] PRC D-51[1] | |
Hoag's Object is an unusualring galaxy in the constellation of Serpens Caput.[5] It isnamed afterArthur Hoag, who discovered it in 1950 and identified it as either aplanetary nebula or apeculiar galaxy.[6] The galaxy has aD25 isophotal diameter of 48.89kiloparsecs (159,000light-years).[1]
A nearly perfect ring of young hot bluestars circles the older yellow nucleus of this ring galaxy c. 600 millionlight-years away in the constellationSerpens. The ring structure is so perfect and circular that it has been referred to as "The most perfect ring galaxy".[7] The diameter of the 6arcsecond inner core of the galaxy is about17±0.7 kly (5.3±0.2 kpc) while the surrounding ring has an inner 28″ diameter of75±3 kly (24.8±1.1 kpc) and an outer 45″ diameter of121±4 kly (39.9±1.7 kpc).[2] The galaxy is estimated to have a mass of 700 billion suns.[8] By comparison, theMilky Way galaxy has an estimated diameter of 150–200 kly and consists of between 100 and 500 billion stars and a mass between 800 billion and 1.54 trillion suns.[9][10]
The gap separating the two stellar populations may contain somestar clusters that are almost too faint to see. Though ring galaxies are rare, another more distant ring galaxy (SDSS J151713.93+213516.8)[11] can be seen through Hoag's Object, between the nucleus and the outer ring of the galaxy, at roughly the one o'clock position in the image shown here.
Noah Brosch and colleagues showed that the luminous ring lies at the inner edge of a much larger neutral hydrogen ring.[7]
A few other galaxies share the primary characteristics of Hoag's Object, including a bright detached ring of stars, but their centers are elongated or barred, and they may exhibit some spiral structure. While none matches Hoag's Object in symmetry, these galaxies are sometimes called Hoag-type galaxies.[12][13]
Even though Hoag's Object was clearly shown on thePalomar Star Survey, it was not included in either theMorphological Catalogue of Galaxies, theCatalogue of Galaxies and Clusters of Galaxies, or thecatalogue of galactic planetary nebulae.[2]
In the initial announcement of his discovery, Hoag proposed the hypothesis that the visible ring was a product ofgravitational lensing. This idea was later discarded because the nucleus and the ring have the sameredshift, and because more advanced telescopes revealed the ring's knotty structure, which would not be visible if the galaxy were a product of gravitational lensing.[8]
Many of the galaxy's details remain mysterious, foremost of which is how it formed. So-called "classic" ring galaxies are generally formed by the collision of a small galaxy with a larger disk-shaped galaxy, producing a density wave in the disk that leads to a characteristic ring-like appearance. Such an event would have happened at least 2–3 billion years ago,[8] and may have resembled the processes that formpolar-ring galaxies. However, there is no sign of any second galaxy that would have acted as the "bullet", and the likely older core of Hoag's Object has a very low velocity relative to the ring, making the typical formation hypothesis implausible.[8] Observations with one of the most sensitive telescopes have also failed to uncover any faint galaxy fragments that should be observable in a collision scenario. However, a team of scientists that analyzes the galaxy admits that "if the carnage happened more than 3 billion years ago, there might not be anydetritus left to see."[14]
Noah Brosch suggested that Hoag's Object might be a product of an extreme "bar instability" that occurred a few billion years ago in abarred spiral galaxy.[15] Schweizeret al[8] claim this is an unlikely hypothesis because the nucleus of the object isspheroidal, whereas the nucleus of a barred spiral galaxy is disc-shaped, among other reasons. However, they admit evidence is somewhat thin for this particular dispute to be settled satisfactorily.
^ 1974 O'Connell paper[2] assumes aHubble constant of 75; this figure adjusts for 2013's67.8±0.77 (km/s)/Mpc.
Media related toHoag's Object at Wikimedia Commons| Stars |
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