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Astronomers have employed the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) to perform comprehensive multiwavelength observations of a large and massive spiral galaxy known as UGC 2885. Results of the observational campaign, published October 21 on the pre-print server arXiv, provide more insights into the properties of this galaxy.
Located some 232 million light years away, UGC 2885, also known as Rubin's galaxy, is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Perseus. With an estimated radius of about 400,000 light years and a total mass at a level of 1.5 trillion solar masses, it is one of the largest and most massive galaxies in the local universe.
Previous observations of UGC 2885 have found that it has an undisturbed spiral structure, which is unexpected for such a large and massive object. In particular, this galaxy showcases a near-perfect structure of the spiral arms and disk, and has no tidal tails. Moreover, contrary to other massive spiral galaxies, UGC 2885 has a relatively low star-formation rate—of about 2.47 solar masses per year.