Hoag’s Object
- Distance To Earth: 612.8 Million Lightyears
- Number Of Stars: 8 Billion
Likely everyone by now knows about the unique Hoag’s Object. It is a galaxy unlike most that we’ve ever come across. Most astronomers have been amazed by it for years. While this is a ring galaxy or a galaxy with a circular appearance, we did not know much more upon its discovery in 1950. Found by Arthur Hoag, he could not decide if it was a planetary nebula or a peculiar galaxy. It’s kind of both, technically. We know this ring, which spans 100,000 lightyears, has roughly 8 billion stars within it. This almost ensures alien worlds are present, but they are over 600 million lightyears away from Earth.
If they saw Earth 600 million years ago, what would they see? Some of the first animals already formed. This came after millions of years being what is essentially a snowball Earth. Multi-celled animals began to flourish at this point, including worms and sponges. Taconic orogeny, or mountain building, began at this time in North America and did not end for another 200 million years. Plus, the Aravalli Range in India’s subcontinent also formed along with the Australian continent. Before Antarctica began to get cold, mountains began to form on its landmass during this time period as well.