The galaxy is located relatively nearby in astronomical terms

Dec 30, 2013 16:01 GMT  ·  By

The flat, pancake-like spiral galaxy that shines bright in the image above is called ESO 373-8, and is one of the “founding” members of the NGC 2977 galactic group. This latest photo was collected by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, via its Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) instrument. 

The galaxy is located relatively nearby in astronomical terms, at a distance of just 25 million light-years. It has no less than seven neighbors in the group, and we see it side-on from our vantage point, hence its flattened appearance. In all likelihood, this cosmic object is similar to the Milky Way in many respects.

Interestingly, most of its stars and stellar nurseries are aligned in the same plane, whereas our galaxy's core has a bulge that protrudes outwards from the plane. This is due to the fact that the Milky Way is larger, and features a larger supermassive black hole that wreaks havoc at this location.

Astronomers say that this galaxy most likely started out as a large ball of slowly rotating hydrogen gas. As more and more stars started to form, matter distribution in ESO 373-8 started to shift, until it caught on more speed. The faster the galaxy went around its axis, the more it flattened and increased its speed.