NGC 2683 - The UFO Galaxy

The UFO Galaxy resides 16 million light years away in the Lynx Constellation. Its inclination relative to us is 80 degrees, so we can clearly see its upper and lower halos. That gives it a familiar flying-saucer shape, and so the Astronaut Memorial Planetarium and Observatory in Florida gave it that nickname.

Despite not being able to see it directly, scientists have determined that it is a barred spiral galaxy. The edge-on view give scientists a chance to study the dark lanes of dust in the galaxy. Older stars populate the core, but the blue lanes suggest large number of young stars in the galaxy’s star-forming areas.