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This unusual galaxy, in the constellation Serpens, was discovered in
1950 by astronomer Art Hoag.
The smoke-ring like object looked like a planetary nebula, the glowing remains of a sun-like star. Hoag discounted that possibility and suggested the object was a galaxy. Observations in the 1970s confirmed his hunch. The distance to the galaxy was measured at 600 million light years. This is our best image yet of the galaxy. It was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 on July 9th 2001. |
