English: High-resolution imagery from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has allowed researchers to hone in on more of the Bullseye galaxy’s rings — and helped confirm which galaxy dove through its core.

LEDA 1313424, aptly nicknamed the Bullseye, is two and a half times the size of our Milky Way and has nine rings — six more than any other known galaxy. Hubble has confirmed eight rings, and data from the W. M. Keck Observatoryin Hawaii confirmed a ninth. Hubble and Keck also confirmed which galaxy dove through the Bullseye, creating these rings: the blue dwarf galaxy that sits to its immediate center-left. This relatively tiny interloper traveled like a dart through the core of the Bullseye about 50 million years ago, leaving rings in its wake like ripples in a pond. A thin trail of gas now links the pair, though they are currently separated by 130,000 light-years.

The team’s paper was published on 4 February 2025 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.