Hubble shows NGC 4698's core turning sideways to its disc
NASA Science and ESA/Hubble each published the same 18 September Hubble frame of NGC 4698, a Virgo spiral about 55 million light-years away whose inner stars and gas rotate at a right angle to the outer disc. Both texts float infalling gas, or a minor merger marked by a short hydrogen tail, as the likely outside cause.
Science··Evening
The inner clock runs at a right angle to the spiral arms
NASA Science said NGC 4698 lies about 55 million light-years away in Virgo, among more than a thousand galaxies in the nearest large cluster, and that stars and gas nearest the centre rotate perpendicular to the rest of the disc. ESA/Hubble's Picture of the Month, dated 18 September 2026 at 10:00, repeats that distance and the sideways inner rotation. Both note that the spiral arms stay prominent in the outer disc and shy away from the glowing centre rather than winding all the way in.[1], [2]
A polar bulge peeks above and below the dusty disc
Both NASA Science and ESA/Hubble say NGC 4698 is one of only a few known spirals whose bulge extends out from the disc at a right angle. The elongation is described as a ghostly glow of the starry bulge peeking above and below the dusty disc in the Hubble frame. That geometry is the visible counterpart of the inner clock running sideways.[1], [2]
The favoured reading still points outside the galaxy
NASA Science and ESA/Hubble both write that the culprit likely lies outside the galaxy: gas funnelled in from elsewhere could have formed a central disc of gas and stars at an angle to the main disc. Some observations, they add, suggest a minor merger, evidenced by a short tail of hydrogen streaming from one side. That merger reading is offered as a possible path, not as a completed reconstruction of NGC 4698's history.[1], [2]
