00:00A galaxy's central stars and gas rotate at right angles to the rest of its disk,
00:05and that unusual motion may reveal how outside material arrived.
00:09Hubble, NASA, and the European Space Agency's telescope
00:12reveals this structure in spiral galaxy NGC 4698.
00:17It lies about 55 million light-years away, in the constellation Virgo.
00:21There, the Virgo Cluster, a group of more than 1,000 galaxies bound by gravity, surrounds it.
00:27But this galaxy's central bulge extends at a right angle to its disk.
00:32Meanwhile, its spiral arms form a loose ring around that disk.
00:36Inside sits a black hole containing millions of times the sun's mass.
00:40Yet astronomers suspect gas captured on a different trajectory could explain the unusual rotation.
00:45That material could have settled into a tilted central disk and formed stars.
00:50And a short hydrogen tail offers another clue to its past.
00:53Some observations suggest a minor merger, an encounter potentially explaining that outside material.
01:00Disclosure.
01:00This video contains stock footage and content created or enhanced, using AI-assisted tools.
01:05This video contains audiovisual bottles.IFE
