Edge-on Spiral Galaxy NGC 3432 in Leo Minor | Hubble Space Telescope

Edge-on Spiral Galaxy NGC 3432 in Leo Minor | Hubble Space Telescope

Believe it or not, this long, luminous streak, speckled with bright blisters and pockets of material, is a spiral galaxy like our Milky Way. 

How could that be? 

It turns out that we see this galaxy, named NGC 3432, orientated directly edge-on to us from our vantage point here on Earth. The galaxy’s spiral arms and bright core are hidden, and we instead see the thin strip of its very outer reaches. Dark bands of cosmic dust, patches of varying brightness, and pink regions of star formation help with making out the true shape of NGC 3432. However, it is still somewhat of a challenge! This is because observatories such as the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope have seen spiral galaxies at every kind of orientation, astronomers can tell when we happen to have caught one from the side.

The galaxy is located in the constellation of Leo Minor (The Lesser Lion).

Distance from Earth: 27-40 million light years

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Filippenko, R. Jansen
Release Date: July 29, 2019

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