This colourful stripe of stars, gas, and dust is actually a spiral galaxy named NGC 1055. Captured here by ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), this big galaxy is thought to be up to 15 percent larger in diameter than the Milky Way. NGC 1055 appears to lack the whirling arms characteristic of a spiral, as it is seen edge-on. However, it displays odd twists in its structure that were probably caused by an interaction with a large neighbouring galaxy. Read more
NGC 1055 (also IRAS 02391+0013, MCG 0-7-81, UGC 2173 and PGC 10208) is a magnitude +11.4 edge-on spiral galaxy located 52 million light-years away in the constellation Cetus. The galaxy can be located about 35' east of Delta Cetus, and close to a pair of magnitude +8.0 stars, HD16835 and HD16786. The galaxy is part of the Messier 77 group of galaxies.
The galaxy was discovered by German-British astronomer William Herschel using a 47.5 cm (18.7 inch) f/13 speculum reflector from an old hunting lodge in Datchet, Berkshire, on the 19th December 1783.
Right Ascension 02h 41m 45.2s, Declination +00° 26' 35"