Nearby galaxy NGC 55

Description cited from the GALEX home page:

This image of the nearby edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 55 was taken by GALEX on September 14th 2003 during 2 orbits. This galaxy lies 5.4 million light years from our Milky Way galaxy and is a member of the "local group" of galaxies that also includes the Andromeda galaxy (M31), the Magellanic clouds, and 40 other galaxies. This picture is a combination of GALEX images taken with the FUV (colored blue) and NUV detectors (colored red).

The spiral disk of NGC 55 is inclined to our line of sight by approximately 80 degrees and so this galaxy looks cigar shaped. The bright blue regions in this image are areas of active star formation detected in ultraviolet light by GALEX.

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