This Spiral Galaxy Is On The Edge. Don’t Push Him!, Sugar Hill Gang Reference Etc.

Enlarge. | Via.

Check out the galaxy NGC 3628. A straight-on chugging through space. Spiral, yet on edge. It’s quite the serious galaxy,until you hear its other nickname.

NASA:

Sharp telescopic views of magnificent edge-on spiral  galaxy NGC 3628  show a puffy  galactic disk  divided by dark dust lanes. The tantalizing scene puts many astronomers  in mind  of its popular moniker, The Hamburger Galaxy. About 100,000 light-years across and 35 million light-years away in the constellation Leo, NGC 3628 shares its neighborhood in the  local Universe  with two other large spirals, a grouping otherwise known as  the Leo Triplet. Gravitational interactions with its cosmic neighbors are likely responsible for the extended flare and warp of this spiral’s disk, populated by the galaxy’s  young blue  star clusters and tell tale pinkish star forming regions. Also a result of past close encounters, a faint  tidal tail  of material is just visible extending upward and left in  this deep galaxy portrait.

Hamburger galaxy? We’re running out of names. I love it, it’s going to give me a chance to name my own some day.