Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Coma Berenices (Com)  ·  Contains:  NGC 4562  ·  NGC 4565  ·  Needle Galaxy
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The Needle Galaxy (NGC 4565), JohnEEvans
The Needle Galaxy (NGC 4565)
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The Needle Galaxy (NGC 4565)

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The Needle Galaxy (NGC 4565), JohnEEvans
The Needle Galaxy (NGC 4565)
Powered byPixInsight

The Needle Galaxy (NGC 4565)

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Description

The Needle Galaxy (NGC 4565) is an edge-on spiral galaxy about 40 million light-years away in Coma Berenices. Its low profile has given rise to the name, The Needle Galaxy.

It is a giant spiral galaxy, likely to be a Barred Spiral Galaxy, the same as our Milky Way. The Needle Galaxy is the largest edge-on galaxy in the night sky. Our own Milky Way would appear quite similar if viewed edge on.

A dark dust lane runs the length of the galaxy as seen from Earth.

Here are some of NGC 4656's properties:
Diameter => 140 million light-years, about 40% larger than the Milky Way.
Number of Stars => 1 trillion, about 3x-10x the Milky Way.
Number of Globular Clusters => 240 (there are around 150 in the Milky Way).

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The Needle Galaxy (NGC 4565), JohnEEvans