sharp cosmic portrait features NGC 891. The spiral galaxy spans
about 100 thousand light-years and is seen almost exactly edge-
on from our perspective. In fact, about 30 million light-years
distant in the constellation Andromeda, NGC 891 looks a lot like
our Milky Way. At first glance, it has a flat, thin, galactic
disk and a central bulge cut along the middle by regions of dark
obscuring dust. The combined image data also reveals the
galaxy's young blue star clusters and telltale pinkish star
forming regions. And remarkably apparent in NGC 891's edge-on
presentation are filaments that extend hundreds of light-years
above and below the center line. The dust has likely been blown
out of the disk by supernova explosions or intense star
formation activity. Faint neighboring galaxies can also been
seen near this galaxy's disk.