It's probably the result of a merger, most odd peculiar galaxies are. This is a very primitive simulation of a different galaxy. But you get the idea.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6HU-TfAM5gHere is a more advanced simulation, but still not supposed to be the exact same object.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJjUciVMvdoIt is absolutely not gravitational lensing. Lensing produces tiny deflections and both the ring and the central bulge are at the same distance.
>>13442708It doesn't "resemble a star". You can see real stars in the image, they are much smaller and point like. If this object was a black hole it would be tiny and point like (like a quasar or AGN), or completely dark. The central object a bulge of old stars. Like a little elliptical or spheroidal galaxy. The Milky Way has a bulge, but in that case the star forming disk extends into the centre. With Hoag's Object there is a gap between the disk and the bulge.
>>13443792The colour comes from taking different images in different filters, just like a digital camera. The colour is as real as your image. You don't see colour in a telescope because the black and white cells in your eye are the most sensitive, so if you can barely see something it is grey. That doesn't mean that there is no colour information there, the universe doesn't just end at the limits of human perception.
