Cartwheel Galaxy

space · galaxies · mind-bending

Looks like a wheel. The Cartwheel Galaxy got its name because it has a bright ring around the outside, just like the rim of a cartwheel. This ring makes it one of the most unusual-looking galaxies in the whole universe.

Super far away. It lives 500 million light-years from Earth in a region of space called the constellation Sculptor. That means the light we see from it today started traveling toward us when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth.

Enormous in size. This galaxy is about 188,000 light-years across, which is roughly twice as wide as our own Milky Way galaxy. It contains billions of stars packed into that cosmic wheel shape.

Made of billions of suns. The Cartwheel Galaxy has a mass of between 2.9 and 4.8 billion times the mass of our Sun, meaning it's made of countless stars, gas, and mysterious dark matter all held together by gravity.

Created by collision. Scientists think the Cartwheel Galaxy got its unusual shape when another galaxy smashed into it long ago, creating a shockwave that spread outward like ripples in water.