Mayall’s Object
We’ve always loved Mayall’s Object, as it’s one of the most incredible stories in astronomy. This galaxy essentially displays a major collision between two different galaxies. Yet we see galaxies colliding all the time that do not look like this at all. How did the galaxy end up looking like a bullet was shot through it? Scientists wanted to find this out too. Apparently, after studying the galaxy more they determined how it happened. It appears as if, upon colliding with each other, a shockwave took place that thrust some of the matter into the center. That led to the formation of the ring around it.
That’s right, the galaxy did not form by the longer portion going through the ring. Rather, the longer portion came first and the shockwave burst sent the other material out to form the ring around the previous portion. The Hubble Space Telescope was responsible for taking the image back in 2008, as it used a Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 instrument to fully capture it. Of course, this galaxy is 500 million lightyears away which is why it is not the most perfect image ever taken. Either way, we find it to be awesome. Certainly, it is one of the most breathtaking photos captured by NASA and the ESA.