The object is located relatively close to the Milky Way

Dec 11, 2013 10:51 GMT  ·  By

Astronomers operating the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope were recently able to capture an impressive image of the nearby polar ring galaxy NGC 660, which is located just 45 million light-years away. About a dozen of these peculiar objects were found since 1978.

These galaxies are different from others through the presence of an outer ring of stars and gas, which rotates over their galactic poles. Astrophysicists believe that these rings may be produced by former gravitational interactions between polar ring galaxies and other galaxies nearby.

In the case of NGC 660, scientists believe that a collision may have occurred around 1 billion years ago, and that its effects are still visible today. In all likelihood, telltale signs of the merger will continue to remain visible for several billions of years more.

Due to Hubble's position at the time it took this image, the dusty stellar ring around this galaxy is not visible here. However, the photo does reveal more data on the core of this polar ring galaxy, which released a supermassive radiation outburst in 2012, that was 10 times brighter than a supernova blast.