NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
This image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, released on Feb. 4, 2025, shows the gargantuan galaxy LEDA 1313424, aptly nicknamed the Bullseye. A far smaller blue dwarf galaxy went through the Bullseye’s center, leaving nine star-filled rings. Astronomers using Hubble identified eight visible rings, more than previously detected by any telescope in any galaxy, and confirmed a ninth using data from the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii. Previous observations of other galaxies show a maximum of two or three rings.
Hubble and Keck’s follow-up observations also helped the researchers prove which galaxy plunged through the center of the Bullseye — a blue dwarf galaxy to its center-left. This relatively tiny interloper traveled like a dart through the core of the Bullseye about 50 million years ago, leaving rings in its wake like ripples in a pond. A thin trail of gas now links the pair, though they are currently separated by 130,000 light-years.
Read more about this “serendipitous discovery.”
Image credit: NASA, ESA, Imad Pasha (Yale), Pieter van Dokkum (Yale)
这张由NASA哈勃太空望远镜拍摄的图像于2025年2月4日发布，展示了巨大的星系LEDA 1313424，因其独特的形态被形象地称为“靶心星系”（Bullseye）。一颗体积远小得多的蓝色矮星系曾穿过靶心星系的中心，留下了九个充满恒星的环状结构。天文学家利用哈勃望远镜观测到了八个可见的环，这一数量超过了任何望远镜在任何星系中探测到的记录，并通过夏威夷W·M·凯克天文台的数据证实了第九个环的存在。此前观测的其他星系最多只显示两到三个环状结构。
哈勃望远镜和凯克天文台的后续观测还帮助研究人员确认了究竟是哪个星系穿越了靶心星系的中心——位于中心偏左的蓝色矮星系。这个相对较小的入侵者约在5,000万年前像飞镖一样穿过靶心星系的中心，在其轨迹中留下类似水波的环状结构。目前，一条细长的气体轨迹仍然连接着这两个星系，尽管它们现在已经相距13万光年。
影像来源: NASA, ESA, Imad Pasha (Yale), Pieter van Dokkum (Yale)
