This is a slightly barred spiral galaxy located 150 million light years away in the constellation of Cygnus at a declination of +58 degrees. It spans 1.6 arc-minutes in our apparent view. This corresponds to a diameter of 70,000 light years. From our view perspective, the disk is inclined about 35 degrees from edge-on.
This galaxy has a highly unusual structure. The core appears to be oblong. The galaxy is barred but the long bar does not extend straight across the core. Instead, the bar emanates from each end of the oblong core. At each end of the bar, an arm extends out perpendicularly for about 180 degrees clockwise.
Ignoring the small foreground Milky Way stars, several bright star clouds are seen throughout the disk. The left half of the disk looks fairly standard, with a small amount of disturbance. But on the right side, the arm soon fragments into several sections, perhaps from the impact of a small unseen companion.
My friend Matthias (
@GalacticRAVE ) posted the Astrobin debut image of this object
here 2 weeks ago.
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