Astronomy:UGC 7069

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UGC 7069
UGC 7069 from the Legacy Survey DR10
Observation data
ConstellationUrsa Major
Right ascension12:04:57.9
Declination+43:08:59.0
Redshift0.052 z
Distance233.16 ± 16.32 Mpc (760 ± 53 Mly)[1]
Absolute magnitude (B)15.70
Characteristics
TypeRing galaxy
Size388,885 ly (119.29 kpc) (estimated)[1]
Notable featuresLargest ring galaxy
Other designations
PGC 38254

UGC 7069 is a very large ring galaxy located about 760 million light years from Earth in the constellation of Ursa Major. It is currently the largest ring galaxy discovered with a diameter of approximately 115 kiloparsecs (~390,000 light-years) making it twice the diameter of the Cartwheel Galaxy which for reference has a diameter of roughly 45.9 kiloparsecs. It is a starburst galaxy with high star formation rate (SFR) of 13 solar masses per year.[2][3]

Morphology

The edges of the galaxy warped which is not commonly seen in other ring galaxies. The galaxy has a double nucleus with lots of A-type stars located there. This peculiar morphology is from a galaxy collision making UGC 7069 a massive collision ring galaxy.[2][4]

There are several candidate galaxies that may have collided with UGC 7069 to form its unusual structure. They include:

  1. SDSS J120433.94+430611.1
  2. SDSS J120432.24+430307.2
  3. SDSS J120515.56+431008.4
  4. SDSS J120517.29+430534.8
  5. SDSS J120523.31+431107.5

Discovery

It was detected by the Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) International Spectroscopic survey as an emission-line galaxy.[2]

References