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Credit & Copyright: Stefan Seip
Explanation:
These two
beautiful galaxies, NGC 5905 (left) and
NGC 5908 lie about 140 million light-years distant in
the northern constellation
Draco.
Separated by about 500,000 light-years,
the pair are actually both
spiral
galaxies and nicely illustrate
the striking contrasts in appearance
possible when viewing spirals from different perspectives.
Seen face-on, NGC 5905 is clearly a
spiral galaxy with bright star clusters tracing arms
that wind outward from a prominent
central bar.
Oriented edge-on
to our view, the spiral nature of NGC 5908
is revealed by a bright nucleus and dark band
of obscuring dust characteristic of a spiral galaxy's disk.
In fact, NGC 5908 is similar in appearance to the well studied
edge-on spiral galaxy M104 -
The Sombrero Galaxy.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: spiral galaxy
Publications with words: spiral galaxy
See also:
- APOD: 2025 September 4 Á NGC 4565: Galaxy on Edge
- APOD: 2025 August 28 Á Galaxies, Stars, and Dust
- APOD: 2025 August 22 Á A Tale of Two Nebulae
- APOD: 2025 August 19 Á Giant Galaxies in Pavo
- APOD: 2025 August 18 Á NGC 1309: A Useful Spiral Galaxy
- APOD: 2025 July 4 Á NGC 6946 and NGC 6939
- APOD: 2025 June 30 Á NGC 4651: The Umbrella Galaxy