NGC 2685

NGC 2685 is a lenticular and polar ring Seyfert Type 2 galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major. Its velocity with respect to the cosmic microwave background is 1003 ± 9km/s, which corresponds to a Hubble distance of. Additionally, eight non-redshift measurements give a distance of. It was discovered by German astronomer Wilhelm Tempel on 18 August 1882.
NGC 2685 is an object of great scientific interest, because polar-ring galaxies are very rare galaxies. They are thought to form when two galaxies gravitationally interact with each other. "The bizarre configuration could be caused by the chance capture of material from another galaxy by a disk galaxy, with the captured debris strung out in a rotating ring. Still, observed properties of NGC 2685 suggest that the rotating ring structure is remarkably old and stable."
Allan Sandage referred to NGC 2685 as "perhaps the most peculiar galaxy in the Shapley-Ames Catalog".