Hoag's Object Galaxy Poster

A nearly perfect ring of hot, blue stars pinwheels about the yellow nucleus of an unusual galaxy known as Hoag's Object. This image captures a face-on view of the galaxy's ring of stars, revealing more detail than any existing photo of this object. The image may help astronomers unravel clues on how such strange objects form. The entire galaxy is about 120,000 light-years wide, which is slightly larger than our Milky Way Galaxy. What appears to be a "gap" separating the two stellar populations may actually contain some star clusters that are almost too faint to see. The galaxy is 600 million light-years away in the constellation Serpens. Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 took this image on July 9, 2001. Credit: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) More information on this image is at http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2002/21/image/a/