LEDA 1313424 — Target Locked on the Cosmos
Where nine ripples mark a violent past.
In the constellation Pisces, about 530 million light-years away, lies LEDA 1313424, a colossal (R)SA(r)a pec collisional ring galaxy roughly 250 000 light-years across — more than twice the size of the Milky Way. Its perfect symmetry and nine luminous rings have earned it the nickname “The Bullseye Galaxy.”
The name is literal. Some 200 million years ago, a smaller galaxy plunged directly through the heart of LEDA 1313424, like a bullet through a target. The impact sent powerful density waves rippling outward through the disk, compressing gas and igniting new star formation in circular fronts. Each expanding ring marks the passage of one of those waves, their spacing widening as the energy dissipated and the shock fronts slowed.
Seen nearly face-on, the result is a vast cosmic target: bright inner rings still rich in young blue stars, outer arcs growing fainter as the final wave fades into intergalactic space. The collision also scattered traces of the intruder — a faint, displaced companion can still be seen nearby, connected by tenuous streams of gas and dust.
On the sky, the galaxy spans about 0.62′ × 0.50′, compact in angular size yet immense in scale.
Few systems record their history so clearly. LEDA 1313424, the Bullseye Galaxy, stands as the first known galaxy with nine distinct stellar rings — a frozen echo of a single collision that turned destruction into order. At present, no confirmed amateur observations appear to have captured this galaxy at comparable depth, making this an exceptionally rare view of one of the universe’s most remarkable collisional remnants.
Imaged in LRGB on my Planewave CDK 1000 at Observatorio El Sauce, Chile.
Image acquisition and processing: Mike Selby