Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. We believe so. The Milky Way , like NGC 891 pictured above , has the width of a typical spiral galaxy .
Spirals have most of their bright stars, gas, and obscuring dust in a thin disk.
This disk can be so thin the spiral galaxy appears edge-on like a compact disk seen sideways . The dark band across the middle is a lane of dust which absorbs light. This false color picture was constructed from 3 near infrared images. Specific rights apply .