This object is an edge-on spiral galaxy located 35 million light years away in the constellation of Leo at a declination of +14 degrees. It is a magnitude 9.5 galaxy which spans 15 arc-minutes in our apparent view. This corresponds to a diameter of 150,000 light years.
NGC 3628 provides us with a wonderful close edge-on view. The highlight is the thick dust lane which bisects the galaxy. This broad lane obscures the galaxy’s bright central region and hides most of the bright stars in the spiral arms.
Gravitational interactions with nearby galaxies M65 and M66 are believed to be responsible for the extended flare and warp of this spiral's disk. A wider FOV of this Leo Triplet (NGC 3628, M65 and M66) is seen
here.
The central bulge has a peanut-shaped glow. Such a glow is fairly common for edge-on galaxies, as seen in my
Peanut-Shaped Core Collection. I like how the central bright area of this glow seems to be peeking out just above the dust lane.
The smudge just below NGC 3628 is believed to be a nearby dwarf galaxy. Immediately below that is a nicely colored, closely spaced pair of blue and orange dots which are believed to be quasars about 8 billion light years away.
The tiny edge-on galaxy seen just above and right of NGC 3628 is 2XMM J111956.5+133753. It is about 1.7 billion light years away.
This object has an unfortunate pair of nicknames. One is the Hamburger Galaxy. I love hamburgers, but I have a distaste for DSO nicknames based on food products. The other nickname is Sarah's Galaxy, of which nobody seems to know the origin. This object is too beautiful to be saddled with any trivial nicknames.
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