Based on a recessional velocity of 1580 km/sec, PGC 2044 is about 70 million light years away, in reasonable agreement with a redshift-independent distance estimate of 60 million light years. Given that and its apparent size of 1.9 by 1.7 arcmin, it is about 40 thousand light years across. The galaxy is listed as a member of the NGC 134 group of galaxies, which includes NGC 115, 131, 148 and 150, PGC 2000 (erroneously identified as IC 1554) and IC 1555. Several of these are also listed as members of a group of galaxies in or near Sculptor with recessional velocities of about 1500 to 1800 km/sec (this is not "the" Sculptor Group, a close neighbor to our Local Group, with an average recessional velocity of less than 300 km/sec).

PGC 2248, usually referred to as the Cartwheel Galaxy, is an example of a "ring" galaxy created by the collision of two galaxies. Five or six hundred million years ago, some galaxy passed directly through the center of PGC 2248, creating a (gravitational shock) wave similar to tossing a rock into a pond. As the shock wave raced outward (at about 200 thousand miles per hour), it passed through and compressed clouds of gas and dust in PGC 2248, causing a wave of stellar formation which created the circular ring which now surrounds the central galaxy. Based on the size of the ring and the speed of the shock wave, the collision is believed to have taken place one or two hundred million years before the light by which we see the galaxy left it, about 400 million years ago. Nearer the time of the collision, the central galaxy would have been tremendously distorted by the collision, and the surrounding ring much smaller. As it is, the ring is now much larger than the central galaxy, and that has settled back into a more normal spiral structure, albeit with some evidence of a second round of shock-wave induced star formation. The ring contains several billion new stars, including many large clusters and associations of hot, bright stars, many of them five to twenty times the mass of the Sun, which are giving off not only large amounts of visible light, but so much ultraviolet radiation that the ring is one of the brightest ultraviolet objects in the entire sky. Which galaxy passed through PGC 2248 is a matter of some debate. Most likely, the bluish galaxy filled with hot, bright blue stars (which are also emitting large amounts of ultraviolet and X radiation), PGC 2249, is the culprit; but two others (including PGC 2252) have also been suggested as the cause of the cosmic catastrophe. Based on a recessional velocity of 9050 km/sec, PGC 2248 is about 420 million light years away. Given that and its apparent size of 1.3 by 0.9 arcmin, it is about 150 thousand light years across.

Listed in NED as ESO-LV 3500401. Based on a recessional velocity of 8640 km/sec, PGC 2249 is about 400 million light years away. However, its proximity to the Cartwheel Galaxy, PGC 2248, which see for images, suggests that the two may have collided a hundred or two million years ago (plus the time it took their light to reach us); so they are probably closer than the 20 million light year difference in their redshift distances. Still, given an approximate distance of 400+ million light years and its apparent size of 0.5 by 0.3 arcmin, PGC 2249 is about 60 thousand light years across.

Listed in NED as ESO-LV 3500402. Based on a recessional velocity of 9105 km/sec, PGC 2252 is about 425 million light years away. Its apparent and physical proximity to the Cartwheel Galaxy, PGC 2248, which see for images, suggests that the two may have collided a hundred or two million years ago (plus the time it took their light to reach us). The hot bright stars in PGC 2249 make it the most likely candidate for the collision, but the absence of gas and dust in PGC 2252 raises the possibility that it may have been stripped of such materials by a collision, so it is one of three candidates for the cause of the cosmic catastrophe. Given its distance and an apparent size of 0.5 by 0.3 arcmin, PGC 2252 is about 60 thousand light years across.