next »

[atomic7732]

I was just looking at this image (NGC 4314), and I noticed the interesting ring of glowing nebulae about half way from the center of the galaxy. This got me thinking, "ring galaxy", not that I meant this galaxy was one, but it got me thinking of ring galaxies. Then I noticed the bright core, and I started thinking that maybe if you left out the dust and gas between the core and the ring of star formation... Maybe you get a ring galaxy. To me it seems really easy to take out the "little" amount of stars outside and inside the ring, besides the core...

So, maybe this is how they form...

1. A normal spiral galaxy forms.
2. Something happens and a ring of nebulae and star formation occurs (now this is the mystery!)
3. As the galaxy ages, the stars outside the ring and inside die out, and little star formation occurs.
4. The dust scatters.
5. Between step 2 and 4, the ring of formation has gone through some generations and create more stars to keep it replenished.

This is my theory/hypothesis on how ring galaxies are formed.

[Naru523]

Good theory. I always think that some ring galaxies were formed by a galaxy passing by it. But it would be probably impossible as it would turn irregular..

[atomic7732]

Good theory. I always think that some ring galaxies were formed by a galaxy passing by it. But it would be probably impossible as it would turn irregular..

Actually most scientists think that... 

[sean2323]

Now, im not that good with physics and gravity, but my theory is that 2 galaxies collide, but the super massive black holes in the center dont merge, they just spin around each other millions of times per second, making the orbit off the stars of the galaxy much shorter, and faster, causing them to fly out ward until they stop, in a ring. My other theory is, for some reason (perhaps a huge gravitational event Ex. getting close to another galaxy) all the stars in the galaxy simply fly away until they stop at some gravitational border, where its close enough the stars dont whip off into the universe, and far enough that they dont get sucked into the super black hole in the center. i have know understanding of how a ring without a center could exist, Ex. if you took away saturn, it's rings could not exist.

[atomic7732]

What I think is odd is if it was a collision, then how would they be so perfect? Scientists always find the easy way out... Like with extrasolar planets, Alot of the stars in systemic have 2 planets, a fast one and a further out one, astronomers found the inner, but everyone else (people who uses Systemic) find the other, it's clearly there, but scientists don't have even ONE claim for them. 

[Bla]

Hypothesis vs. theory.
Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Interesting hypothesises[/url] though.

Ex. if you took away saturn, it's rings could not exist.

True, but it only depends on the velocity and the gravitational influence of other bodies. If the ring was rotating slowly enough, and the mass was equally distributed, the asteroids could (I think) be held in their places by the rest of the asteroids in the ring, and it would keep rotating. It requires that there's no big gravity source near it to rip it apart though.

[atomic7732]

The moons in the rings (Pan, daphnis, Atlas, Proetheus, and Pandora) would disprupit it. Probably even Mimas and Enceladus too.