UGC 7069

UGC 7069
UGC 7069 from the Legacy Survey DR10
Observation data
Constellation	Ursa Major
Right ascension	12:04:57.9
Declination	+43:08:59.0
Redshift	0.052 z
Distance	233.16 ± 16.32 Mpc (760 ± 53 Mly) [1]
Absolute magnitude  (B)	15.70
Characteristics
Type	Ring galaxy
Size	388,885 ly (119.29 kpc) (estimated) [1]
Notable features	Largest ring galaxy
Other designations
PGC 38254

UGC 7069 is a very large ring galaxy located about 760 million light years from Earth in the Constellation of Ursa Major. It is currently the largest ring galaxy discovered with a diameter of approximately 115 kiloparsecs (~390,000 Light Years) making it twice the diameter of the Cartwheel galaxy which for reference has a diameter of roughly 45.9 kiloparsecs. It is a starburst galaxy with high star formation rate (SFR) of 13 solar masses per year. ^{[2] [3]}

Morphology

The edges of the galaxy warped which is not commonly seen in other ring galaxies. The galaxy has a double nucleus with lots of A-type stars located there. This peculiar morphology is from a galaxy collision making UGC 7069 a massive collision ring galaxy. ^{[2] [4]}

There are several candidate galaxies that may have collided with UGC 7069 to form its unusual structure. They include:

1. SDSS J120433.94+430611.1
2. SDSS J120432.24+430307.2
3. SDSS J120515.56+431008.4
4. SDSS J120517.29+430534.8
5. SDSS J120523.31+431107.5

Discovery

It was detected by the Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) International Spectroscopic survey as an emission-line galaxy. ^[2]

Reference

1. "NED Results for UGC 7069" . Retrieved 2025-07-30.
2. Ghosh, Kajal K.; Mapelli, Michela (2008-05-01). "UGC 7069: the largest ring galaxy". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters. 386 (1): L38 –L42. arXiv: 0802.1270 . doi:10.1111/j.1745-3933.2008.00456.x. ISSN   1745-3925.
3. "CzSkY". www.czsky.eu. Retrieved 2025-07-12.
4. Ford, Dominic. "UGC 7069 (Galaxy)". In-The-Sky.org. Retrieved 2025-07-12.