NGC 4762: A Galaxy on the Edge: APOD: 2014 November 5 - NGC 4762: A Galaxy on the Edge
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2014 November 5
Explanation: Why is there a bright line on the sky? What is pictured above is actually a disk
galaxy being seen almost perfectly edge on. The image from the
Hubble Space Telescope is a spectacular visual reminder of just how
thin disk galaxies can be. NGC 4762, a galaxy in the nearby
Virgo Cluster of Galaxies, is so thin that it is actually
difficult to determine what type of disk galaxy it is. Its lack of a visible dust lane indicates that it is a low-dust
lenticular galaxy, although it is still possible that a view from on top would reveal spiral structure. The unusual stellar line spans about 100,000
light years from end to end. Near
NGC 4762's center is a slight bulge of stars, while
many background galaxies are visible far in the distance. Galaxies that
appear this thin are rare mostly because our Earth must reside (nearly) in the extrapolated
planes of their thin galactic disks. Galaxies that actually
are this thin are relatively common -- for example our own
Milky Way Galaxy is thought to be about this
thin.