NGC 7497

This object is a spiral galaxy, almost edge-on, located 60 million light years away in the constellation of Pegasus. Its apparent diameter of 5 arc-minutes corresponds to a diameter of 90,000 light years, almost as large as our Milky Way.

The galaxy shows signs of gravitational deformation from nearby galaxies. The core of the galaxy is displaced somewhat to the right and the galaxy disk appears a bit deformed on the left edge. The galaxy is also showing the typical signs of star formation from this interaction, in the brightness of the bright blue star clusters in the middle section of the disk, as well as the presence of a reddish Ha-type tint towards the left half.

The galaxy is beautiful. But of course what is special about this object is that it lies behind faint, wispy, winding streams of interstellar dust. This galactic cirrus of our Milky Way galaxy is in the foreground, a cloud complex about one degree in diameter and 900 light years away.

Typical of most deep sky images, the background also contains some interesting galaxy structures (credit: Gary Imm).