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.
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