An amazing galaxy with nine rings has been found

The Hubble Space Telescope has photographed the giant galaxy LEDA 1313424, or Bull’s Eye.

It is located 567 million light-years from Earth, NASA reports, and the event itself is detailed in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The galaxy is 2.5 times the size of the Milky Way and has a record nine rings, making it unique among known galaxies.

Researchers believe that about 50 million years ago, a small blue dwarf galaxy passed through the Bull’s Eye.

It then caused a rippling motion of gas, dust and stars – like a stone thrown into water creates circles on the surface.

This process produced concentric rings of newly formed stars.

Scientists note that so far no other galaxy has not found so many rings.

Previously recorded record – three rings, and here they are as many as nine. And the eighth ring was confirmed by Hubble, and the ninth – ground-based observatories Keck.

Perhaps there was also a tenth ring, but it became too faint to notice it.

Such observations help to better understand the interaction of galaxies and the processes of star formation.

In the future, scientists expect to see more of these collisions thanks to the telescope Nancy Grace Roman, which should work in 2027.