A possible polar ring galaxy (PRG) has been discovered 1.8 billion light-years away. The ring galaxy DJ0240 may belong to this rare subclass, but further observations are needed to confirm. Ring galaxies are a rare form of galaxy that results from the interaction of two galaxies. Researchers at Christ University have unexpectedly discovered another ring galaxy in space, according to a publication on the preprint server arXiv. According to astronomers, the ring galaxy DJ0240 may belong to the rare subclass of polar ring galaxies (PRG). So far, astronomy has found more than 400 PRG candidates, but spectroscopic observations have only confirmed a small portion of them as PRG.
PRGs are formed in the universe by the merger of two galaxies, consisting of a polar ring of gas and stars and a central elongated object. The polar ring and the elongated object in the center are separated for billions of years in PRGs. The ring galaxy DJ0240 was discovered in images from the Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey (DECaLS). Its distance from Earth is about 1.8 billion light-years. The angle at which the ring is positioned is about 80 degrees, while the angle of the host galaxy is about 10 degrees. This suggests that the orientation of the two components is almost perpendicular to each other.
The diameter of the ring is three times larger than that of the galaxy. Additionally, the ring has a significantly bluer color, which is typical of PRGs. The scientists suspect that the more intense blue color of the ring component generally indicates an increased level of active star formation in this region. “We propose that the ring galaxy DJ0240 is an extremely promising candidate for inclusion in the PRG catalog.” However, whether the ring galaxy DJ0240 is actually a PRG can only be verified or falsified by further observations.
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