Hubble Reveals the Out-of-Sync Structure of Galaxy NGC 4698

NASA Science published a new Hubble Space Telescope image of NGC 4698 on September 18, 2026. The galaxy lies about 55 million light-years away in Virgo and belongs to the Virgo Cluster. Its spiral arms are most prominent in the outer disk, forming a ring-like structure around the bright centre. Unlike a typical spiral galaxy, NGC 4698 has an elongated central bulge that extends almost at right angles to the disk. Astronomers have also found that stars and gas near the centre rotate roughly perpendicular to the outer disk. The official article says external gas accretion could have created the unusual inner structure, while other observations suggest a past minor merger. The source and image release are both dated September 18. Those origin scenarios are scientific interpretations rather than a directly observed history, so this report preserves the conditional language and does not present one explanation as uniquely proven.