AM 0644-741
Encyclopedia
AM 0644-741 is an unbarred lenticular galaxy
, and a ring galaxy
which means it has a ring of nebulae around it. AM 0644-741 is 300 million light-years away in the direction of the southern constellation Volans.
The yellowish nucleus was once the center of a normal spiral galaxy. Ring galaxies are formed when an intruder galaxy plunges directly through the disk of a target galaxy. The collision creates a shock wave that causes the gas and dust to rush outward. As the shock ring plows outward, gas and dust clouds collide, are compressed and then collapse gravitationally to form an abundance of new stars in a ring around the outside. The ring is a region of rampant star formation dominated by young, massive, hot blue stars.
The pink regions along the ring are rarefied clouds of glowing hydrogen gas that is fluorescing as it bombarded with strong ultraviolet light from the blue stars. The ring of AM 0644-741 will continue to expand for about another 300 million years after which it will begin to disintegrate.
The ring was formed by a collision with another galaxy that triggered a gravitational disruption. The disruption caused dust in the galaxy to condense, and form stars, which forced it to then expand away from the galaxy, and create a ring. AM 0644-741 has a 150,000 light-year
diameter
.
Unbarred lenticular galaxy
An unbarred lenticular galaxy is a lenticular version of an unbarred spiral galaxy. They have the Hubble type of SA0An example of this is the Galaxy AM 0644-741. For other examples see :Category:Unbarred lenticular galaxies....
, and a ring galaxy
Ring galaxy
A ring galaxy is a galaxy with a ring-like appearance. The ring consists of massive, relatively young blue stars, which are extremely bright. The central region contains relatively little luminous matter. Some astronomers believe that ring galaxies are formed when a smaller galaxy passes through...
which means it has a ring of nebulae around it. AM 0644-741 is 300 million light-years away in the direction of the southern constellation Volans.
The yellowish nucleus was once the center of a normal spiral galaxy. Ring galaxies are formed when an intruder galaxy plunges directly through the disk of a target galaxy. The collision creates a shock wave that causes the gas and dust to rush outward. As the shock ring plows outward, gas and dust clouds collide, are compressed and then collapse gravitationally to form an abundance of new stars in a ring around the outside. The ring is a region of rampant star formation dominated by young, massive, hot blue stars.
The pink regions along the ring are rarefied clouds of glowing hydrogen gas that is fluorescing as it bombarded with strong ultraviolet light from the blue stars. The ring of AM 0644-741 will continue to expand for about another 300 million years after which it will begin to disintegrate.
The ring was formed by a collision with another galaxy that triggered a gravitational disruption. The disruption caused dust in the galaxy to condense, and form stars, which forced it to then expand away from the galaxy, and create a ring. AM 0644-741 has a 150,000 light-year
Light-year
A light-year, also light year or lightyear is a unit of length, equal to just under 10 trillion kilometres...
diameter
Diameter
In geometry, a diameter of a circle is any straight line segment that passes through the center of the circle and whose endpoints are on the circle. The diameters are the longest chords of the circle...
.