Dive into the Enigma of the Universe: UGC 12591

 Identifying the form of UGC 12591, perched 400 million light-years away from our planet, has posed quite a problem. Is it a lenticular or a spiral galaxy? The dense dust lanes are akin to spirals; however, the vast, indistinct bulge aligns more with lenticulars. This ambiguity took a backseat when Hubble telescope clocked its rotation speed at a staggering 480 km/s. 

This velocity, doubling that of the Milky Way, crowns UGC 12591 as the fastest rotating galaxy we've discovered. To accommodate such a swift rotation, UGC 12591's mass should exceed the Milky Way's by at least fourfold. Scientists are presently developing models to elucidate this galaxy's formation, grappling with the question: Is UGC 12591 a by-product of galactic collisions or a lenticular galaxy that has progressively accrued material over the eons? 

Source Acknowledgment: NASA, ESA, Hubble, Leo Shatz.