ObserveTheSky › Everything in the sky › The Cartwheel Galaxy
ring galaxy

What is the Cartwheel Galaxy?

Ring galaxy formed when another galaxy punched through its disc, sending out a ring-shaped shockwave.

Can you see it?

No small telescope will show you this one; it is here to be understood, not spotted.

Worth knowing about the Cartwheel Galaxy

Anything light from there tells us is news about 430 million years old.

Why it stands out
The impact sent a ring-shaped shockwave rippling outwards, triggering a wave of new star formation around the rim. Ring galaxies like this are rare.
Its name and its story
Discovered 1941 by Fritz Zwicky, the same astronomer who eight years earlier first proposed dark matter.
The Cartwheel Galaxy — A model, seen from the Earth, with north up.
The numbers
Acrossabout 160,000 light-years
Distance from usabout 430 million light-years
How big it looksabout 1.3 arcminutes — the full Moon is about 30

We use about 430 million light-years: the time its light has been on the way, worked out from its redshift (NED, z = 0.0302) with the Planck 2018 values for the expanding universe; a faster expansion, as some measurements give, makes it about 7% less. The 500 million often quoted matches no kind of distance.

How anyone knows this

Things like it

Hoag’s Objectring galaxyBeyond a 150 mm telescopeThe Milky Wayspiral galaxyNaked eyeThe Andromeda Galaxy (M31)spiral galaxyNaked eyeThe Triangulum Galaxy (M33)spiral galaxyBinocularsThe Large Magellanic Cloudirregular galaxyNaked eyeBode’s Galaxy (M81)spiral galaxyBinoculars

Games it appears in

Show the Cartwheel Galaxy in the model📖 How the galaxies fit together🌙 Plan an evening outside