NGC 2685 (Arp 336) – Helix Galaxy

Description:

A beautiful curiosity in our universe, the Helix galaxy. Located 40 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major, it is a very rare “polar-ring lenticular” galaxy. This ring of gas and dust, rotating at right angles to the plane of the galaxy, is the result of a collision with another galaxy a long time ago. There are barely a hundred galaxies of this type out of the trillion known galaxies, and this one is the most unusual.