Bullseye! Astronomers discover a giant galaxy with nine rings

[JoseBalow]

1. "The team pieced together this cosmic enigma through a combination of powerful telescopes."

Wow!

The team pieced together this cosmic enigma through a combination of powerful telescopes. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope was used to closely examine the Bullseye, confirming eight rings with crisp, high-resolution images. Meanwhile, the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii used its Cosmic Web Imager to detect a dim, ninth ring and confirm that the dwarf galaxy has the proper motion and disturbed gas to be the culprit that created the Bullseye’s rings. Finally, the Dragonfly Telephoto Array—an innovative system of camera lenses designed to see very faint structures—captured low surface brightness features in the outer edges of Bullseye, revealing just how extensive the entire system really is.