This edge-on spiral galaxy, nicknamed the Splinter Galaxy and the Knife Edge Galaxy, is located 60 million light years away in the constellation of Draco at a declination of +56 degrees. It is a magnitude 11 galaxy which spans 12 arc-minutes in our apparent view. This corresponds to a large diameter of 180,000 light years.
We are able to just barely see the core peaking out over the dramatic thick dust lane. The galaxy is missing a bulge in the middle - most spiral galaxies have a spherical hub of stars surrounding their cores, but this galaxy's hub is very weak The disk is warped slightly, especially towards the lower edge.
The length-to-thickness ratio of this galaxy is so high that it is classified as a
superthin galaxy. I love the look of these thin edge-on galaxies, particularly the excellent view of their
dust bands.
Although I was not able to capture it in this image, this galaxy is surrounded by a very faint tidal stream - a ribbon of stars surrounding the central galaxy in a series of gigantic loops.
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