Letters
Bull’s-eye targeted
On the picture in “Galactic bull’s-eye” (SN: 9/24/11, p. 10), I am quite puzzled. Do my eyes deceive me, or is there another bull’s-eye galaxy behind the first, located at the 1 o’clock position?
How is this possible? Are these strange objects magically clustered along some line pointing towards us?
Jeff Brewer, Newton Centre, Mass.
It is peculiar that another ring-galaxy–like object would appear in the background, and in fact the Hubble Heritage Team noted its odd appearance. It’s possible, but not probable, that the object is another Hoag-like object. There could also be material obscuring the view of the rest of the galaxy, hiding its true shape. Either way, there’s no sign of ring galaxies being aligned in the sky. The astronomer who created the image wrote a detailed article on Hoag&rsquo
