Posted on 02/04/2026 11:18:51 AM PST by MtnClimber
Explanation: Most galaxies don't have any rings -- why does this galaxy have three? To begin, a ring that's near NGC 1512's center -- and so hard to see here -- is the nuclear ring which glows brightly with recently formed stars. Next out is a ring of stars and dust appearing both red and blue, called, counter-intuitively, the inner ring. This inner ring connects ends of a diffuse central bar of stars that runs horizontally across the galaxy. Farthest out in this wide field image is a ragged structure that might be considered an outer ring. This outer ring appears spiral-like and is dotted with clusters of bright blue stars. All these ring structures are thought to be affected by NGC 1512's own gravitational asymmetries in a drawn-out process called secular evolution. The featured image was captured last month from a telescope at Deep Sky Chile in Chile.
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For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.
🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔
:D
Pretty!
“All these ring structures are thought to be affected by NGC 1512’s own gravitational asymmetries in a drawn-out process called secular evolution.”
As opposed to religious evolution...
It looks like a birthday cheeseburger with one candle on top.
I think it may be a double cheeseburger.
Quite the fireworks show going on out there.
To anyone living on a planet in that galaxy, the night sky could be spectacular.
A Cheeseburger? LOL! Kinda looks like pretty ‘lady parts’ to me.
I’ll bet she’s the most popular Galaxy in the entire Universe! ;)
When it’s clear our Northern Skies at night have been SPECTACULAR this winter. Feels like you can ‘touch the stars’ when you’re out there - we have NO light pollution at all.
And my good pal, ‘Orion’ keeps watch over me. ;)
Oh my.
Intergalactic porn.
Now Bill Clinton will be looking here.
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