The NGC 660 Galaxy is an extremely rare galaxy referred to as a polar-ring galaxy. These two galaxies collided billions of years ago and formed this extremely special shape. It’s hypothesized to have formed like this due to the gravitational interaction the galaxy could have had with another galaxy and caused it to be “strung out” over time.

    Polar-ring galaxies are peculiar objects. Astronomers have found only a handful of them, so not much is known about their origins. Most have an early-type spiral system, called a lenticular galaxy, as the central showpiece. But NGC 660, which lies about 40 million light-years distant toward the direction of Pisces the Fishes, is the only polar-ring galaxy known with what is called a late-type lenticular galaxy as its host. All, however, display a ring of stars, dust, and gas that extends tens of thousands of light-years across space along an orbit nearly perpendicular to the main disk.