Object Analysis

Hoag's Object is a non-typical galaxy of the type known as a ring galaxy. It is located about 600 million light-years away in the constellation Serpens. Discovered by Arthur Hoag in 1950, it consists of a perfectly round ring of young, hot blue stars surrounding a seemingly detached yellow nucleus of older stars.

The gap between the two stellar populations appears almost completely dark, although it may contain some faint star clusters. The origin of Hoag's Object remains a mystery; classic ring galaxies are formed by collisions, but there is no sign of a "bullet" galaxy that punched through the center.

In a bizarre coincidence, visible through the gap between the nucleus and the ring (at roughly the one o'clock position) is another, much more distant ring galaxy. The odds of such an alignment are astronomically low.