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                           Astronomy Picture of the Day   
      
       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.   
      
                                   2024 March 6   
       A starfield is shown with an unusual horizontal line segment running   
      throug the middle. The segment is an edge-on galaxy and many brown dust   
        filaments are visible. Please see the explanation for more detailed   
                                   information.   
      
                             M102: Edge-on Disk Galaxy   
           Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble; Processing: Ehsan Ebahimian   
      
      Explanation: What kind of celestial object is this? A relatively normal   
      galaxy -- but seen from its edge. Many disk galaxies are actually just   
      as thin as NGC 5866, the Spindle galaxy, pictured here, but are not   
      seen edge-on from our vantage point. A perhaps more familiar galaxy   
      seen edge-on is our own Milky Way galaxy. Also cataloged as M102, the   
      Spindle galaxy has numerous and complex dust lanes appearing dark and   
      red, while many of the bright stars in the disk give it a more blue   
      underlying hue. The blue disk of young stars can be seen in this Hubble   
      image extending past the dust in the extremely thin galactic plane.   
      There is evidence that the Spindle galaxy has cannibalized smaller   
      galaxies over the past billion years or so, including multiple streams   
      of faint stars, dark dust that extends away from the main galactic   
      plane, and a surrounding group of galaxies (not shown). In general,   
      many disk galaxies become thin because the gas that forms them collides   
      with itself as it rotates about the gravitational center. The Spindle   
      galaxy lies about 50 million light years distant toward the   
      constellation of the Dragon (Draco).   
      
                 Tomorrow's picture: not a distant galactic nebula   
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