Portrait of NGC 1055
Image Credit &
Copyright:
John Hayes
Big, beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 1055 is a dominant member of
a small galaxy group
a mere 60 million light-years away toward
the aquatically intimidating
constellation
Cetus.
Seen edge-on, the island universe spans over 100,000 light-years,
a little larger than our
own Milky Way galaxy.
The colorful, spiky stars decorating this cosmic
portrait of NGC 1055
are in the foreground, well within the Milky Way.
But telltale pinkish star forming
regions and young blue star clusters are scattered through
winding dust lanes along the distant galaxy's thin disk.
With a smattering of even more distant background galaxies, the
deep image also reveals a boxy halo that extends
far above and below the central bulge and disk of NGC 1055.
The halo itself is laced with faint, narrow structures,
and could represent the mixed and spread out
debris from a satellite galaxy
disrupted by
the larger spiral some
10 billion years ago.