Apod 3.5

NGC 2685 is a Polar Ring Galaxy. It is a rare type of galaxy with stars, gas and dust orbiting in rings perpendicular to the plane of a flat galactic disk. The bizarre configuration could be caused by the capture of random material not originally in the galaxy. The view is really amazing, but like most APOD's it is not visible with the naked eye. The perpendicular rings are easy to trace in the Constellation Ursa Major.