Hubble Captures Bizarre Spiral Galaxy Spinning In Two Directions At Once

by Aaron Leong — Monday, September 21, 2026, 11:17 AM EDT

NGC 4698 is a spiral galaxy that spins in two directions — NGC 4698 is a spiral galaxy spinning in two directions - Image: ESA / NASA / D. Thilker / MAUVE-HST Team

Within the Virgo Cluster, lies NGC 4698, a spiral galaxy roughly 55 million light-years away whose inner workings defy the expected order of things. Newly released images from the Hubble Space Telescope reveal a galaxy that is spinning in two entirely different directions at once. The culprit is believed to have been caused by something outside the galaxy.

While typical spiral galaxies act like uniformly rotating disks of stars, dust, and gas, NGC 4698 features a core that moves out of sync with the surrounding galactic body. The outer stellar ring rotates in a flat, predictable plane similar to our own Milky Way, but the densely packed cluster of stars at its core is tilted perpendicularly, spinning crosswise like a wheel set on its edge inside a flat ring. Because galactic structures are not rigidly bound, individual stellar streams can follow separate orbital loops around a common center without canceling each other out, allowing these dual rotation axes to persist over vast cosmic timelines.

NGC 4698 is a barred spiral galaxy located among the Virgo cluster — NGC 4698 is a spiral galaxy located among the Virgo cluster - Image: KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/Susan Hopkins/Adam Block

Astronomers at NASA/ESA suspect this strange misalignment is the lingering ghost of an ancient galactic meal. The leading hypothesis suggests that NGC 4698 cannibalized a smaller neighbor or funneled in vast streams of counter-rotating intergalactic gas ages ago. As the ingested material collapsed toward the galaxy's gravitational center, it settled into a perpendicular accretion plane rather than assimilating into the main disk's existing rotation. Supporting evidence for this theory includes a subtle tail of hydrogen gas trailing off one side of the galaxy, which is a telltale sign left behind in the wake of a collision or capture event.

These new hi-res Hubble imagery comes as part of an observation program studying galaxies navigating the dense environment of the Virgo Cluster. By mapping details ranging from glowing star-forming nurseries laced with hot blue stars to older, cooler populations orbiting the central bulge, scientists hope to better understand how galactic mergers, environment, and gas consumption shape cosmic evolution. At the very center of NGC 4698 right now sits a growing supermassive black hole containing millions of solar masses, pulling in surrounding gas while anchored within one of the most structurally eccentric spiral galaxies ever recorded.