A team of astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has captured a new image of the edge-on lenticular galaxy IC 335.
This Hubble image shows the galaxy IC 335 in front of a backdrop of distant galaxies. Image credit: ESA / NASA / Hubble.
IC 335, also known as IC 1963, is located in the Fornax Cluster, about 60 million light-years away.
It is about 45,000 light-years long and belongs to a galaxy group containing three other galaxies.
As seen in this Hubble image, the disk of the galaxy appears edge-on from the vantage point of our planet.
Lenticular galaxies like IC 335 are best described as spiral galaxies without the spiral.
The spirals highlight the places where bright new stars are forming, but lenticular galaxies have lost the interstellar gas which forms new stars.
The exact nature of these galaxies is still a matter of debate.
According to astronomers, lenticulars are most often found in dense clusters of galaxies, so the most likely conclusion is that collisions with other galaxies or intergalactic gas clouds have stripped the gas out of these galaxies.
