APOD 4.7

Many dark dust lanes can be seen cutting acrossthe middle of this island universe, which is a big hint to astronomers that NGC 3628 is a spiral galaxy that we see sideways. Located almost 35 light-years away in the springtime constellation Leo, NGC 3628 bears the distinction of being the only member of the Leo triplet of galaxies not in Charles Messier's famous catalog. Similar in size to our Milky Way Galaxy, the disk of NGC 3628 is clearly seen as fanning out near the edges. A faint arm can also be seen extending out to the left in this sharp deep view of the region. The slighty distorted shape and faint tidal tail suggest that NGC 3628 is interacting gravitationally with the other spiral galaxies of the Leo triplet, M65 and M66. Its pretty cool to see this view of a galaxy and to think that its shape looks completely different when seen from another angle. Its also interesting to know that this galaxy was not part of Messier's list, but M65 and M66 also located in Leo are a part of the list.