Cartwheel Galaxy [SEP] constellation
Cartwheel Galaxy
The Cartwheel Galaxy (also known as ESO 350-40 or PGC 2248) is a lenticular galaxy and ring galaxy about 500 million light-years away in the constellation Sculptor. It is an estimated 150,000 light-years diameter, and has a mass of about solar masses; its outer ring has a circular velocity of .
It was discovered by Fritz Zwicky in 1941. Zwicky considered his discovery to be "one of the most complicated structures awaiting its explanation on the basis of stellar dynamics."
with companion stars, and appear as the white dots that lie along the rim of the X-ray image. The Cartwheel contains an exceptionally large number of these black hole binary X-ray sources, because many massive stars formed in the ring.
External links.
- Galaxy Evolution Simulation:The Cartwheel Galaxy
- Cartwheel Galaxy at Constellation Guide