Edge-on Spiral Galaxy NGC 891

This beautiful cosmic portrait features NGC 891 . The spiral galaxy spans about 100 thousand light-years and is seen almost exactly edge-on from our perspective. In fact, about 30 million light-years distant in the constellation Andromeda, NGC 891 looks a lot like our Milky Way . At first glance, it has a flat, thin, galactic disk and a central bulge cut along the middle by regions of dark obscuring dust . Also apparent in NGC 891's edge-on presentation are filaments of dust that extend hundreds of light-years above and below the center line. The dust has likely been blown out of the disk by supernova explosions or intense star formation activity . Faint neighboring galaxies can also been seen near this galaxy's disk.