This object is a barred grand design spiral galaxy located 50 million light years away in the constellation of Virgo at a declination of +2 degrees. This 10.6 magnitude galaxy spans 7 arc-minutes in our apparent view, which corresponds to an actual diameter of 100,000 light years.
The angle of our apparent view, at about 15 degrees from edge-on, gives us an interesting look at the structure of this galaxy. The bright core is surrounded by dark dust lanes, especially above the core. The dust lanes formed an interesting “X-shape” just above the core that I haven’t seen before in any galaxy. The grand design spiral arms contain many bright blue star clusters.
This galaxy reminds me of
NGC 3981, which I posted 2 weeks ago. The resemblance is especially strong in the arm structure and in our viewing angle.
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