NGC 4698 is a spiral galaxy whose central structure is strikingly out of alignment with its main disk: its bulge extends at a right angle to the disk, while stars and gas near the center rotate perpendicular to the rest of the disk. The geometry is observed; how it formed remains uncertain.
What is out of sync in NGC 4698?
NGC 4698 lies about 55 million light-years away in the Virgo Cluster, which NASA described in 2026 as containing more than a thousand galaxies. The galaxy’s unusual feature is not simply that its spiral arms look tilted. Rather, its central bulge is elongated at a right angle to the main disk, and the stars and gas nearest the center rotate perpendicular to the rest of the disk, according to the NASA account of the Hubble image and the ESA/Hubble image description.
That distinction matters: the reported perpendicular motion concerns the inner stars and gas compared with the rest of the disk. It does not establish that the spiral arms themselves rotate independently.
How was the mismatch established?
The Hubble image makes the galaxy’s structure visible, but the decoupling was documented well before the 2026 image feature. In a 1999 paper, Bertola and colleagues described the inner bulge as elongated perpendicular to the disk’s major axis and reported a stellar velocity pattern along the disk’s axes. They interpreted the geometric and kinematic decoupling as evidence that NGC 4698’s formation history included a second event. The paper is titled “The bulge-disk orthogonal decoupling in galaxies: NGC 4698”.
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The 2026 Hubble view therefore brings attention to a previously studied structure; it should not be described as the first discovery of the galaxy’s decoupled bulge and motion.
Why might the center rotate perpendicular to the disk?
A leading possibility is that NGC 4698 acquired gas from outside the galaxy. NASA’s 2026 explanation says externally funneled gas could have settled into a central disk at an angle to the main disk, producing the unusual arrangement.
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A past minor merger is another proposed part of the story. NASA and ESA/Hubble point to a short stream or tail of hydrogen as evidence consistent with such an encounter. That feature supports the possibility, but it does not prove a specific merger or establish the full sequence of events. The available accounts do not settle whether external gas acquisition, a minor merger, or a combination explains the galaxy’s structure.
What role does the central black hole play?
NASA reports signs that NGC 4698’s central black hole is actively growing and drawing gas inward. That is useful context about the galaxy’s center, but the cited accounts do not show that the black hole caused the perpendicular rotation. The observed orientation and the black hole’s activity should be treated as separate facts unless further evidence links them.
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What remains uncertain?
- The cited accounts report the perpendicular orientation but give no numerical angle measurement for the inner rotation.
- They do not state a measured length for the hydrogen tail.
- They offer possible formation pathways rather than a settled reconstruction of NGC 4698’s past.
NASA’s Hubble report, dated September 18, 2026, credits the NASA Hubble Mission Team and identifies ESA/Hubble text credit. It associates the image with observing programme 18103, led by principal investigator D. Thilker, a programme focused on Virgo galaxies. The ESA/Hubble image page credits ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker, and the MAUVE-HST Team; its image-use terms are CC BY 4.0 International or the ESA Standard Licence.
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