Cartwheel Galaxy Region

The Cartwheel is part of a group of four galaxies, as shown in this collage of images from ground-based optical and radio telescopes and the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2.

Located 500 million light-years away in the constellation Sculptor, the galaxy (located near the bottom right corner) looks like a wagon wheel. The galaxy's nucleus is the bright object in the center; the spokes are wisps of material connecting the nucleus to the outer ring of young stars. The galaxy's unusual configuration was created by a nearly head-on collision with a smaller galaxy about 200 million years ago.