The Hubble Space Telescope has spotted a UFO — well, the UFO
Galaxy, to be precise. NGC 2683 is a spiral galaxy seen almost
edge-on, giving it the shape of a classic science fiction
spaceship. This is why the astronomers at the Astronaut Memorial
Planetarium and Observatory gave it this attention-grabbing
nickname. While a bird’s eye view lets us see the detailed
structure of a galaxy (such as this Hubble image of a barred
spiral), a side-on view has its own perks. In particular, it
gives astronomers a great opportunity to see the delicate dusty
lanes of the spiral arms silhouetted against the golden haze of
the galaxy’s core. In addition, brilliant clusters of young blue
stars shine scattered throughout the disc, mapping the galaxy’s
star-forming regions. Perhaps surprisingly, side-on views of
galaxies like this one do not prevent astronomers from deducing
their structures. Studies of the properties of the light coming
from NGC 2683 suggest that this is a barred spiral galaxy, even
though the angle we see it