The edge-on S0 galaxy M102 (NGC 5866) in Draco, as photographed by Bill Keel and Lisa Frattare. This image was created from a 10-minute red-light exposure with a Tektronix 2048x2048 CCD at the 2.1-meter telescope of Kitt Peak National Observatory, North top and East left. The field is 4.6 arc minutes square.

The image shows the central buldge almost perfectly bisected by the dust lane from our vantage point. Many S0 galaxies have such dust in their disks, although it forms more of an annulus than the radially extensive distributions in spiral galaxies. In this case, the dust is slightly warped from the disk starlight, which happens when there is a three-dimensional warp to the disk. This may indicate that NGC 5866 underwent a tidal disturbance in the distant past. What is harder to see, even in this logarithmic display, is that the faint halo light of NGC 5866 fills the entire frame.

From Bill Keel's Messier Picture Gallery at the University of Alabama.
Credit: Bill Keel, University of Alabama.

M102 candidate NGC 5866 as seen in the infrared light, at a wavelength of two micrometers. The smooth near-infrared light seen in the 2MASS image is dominated by the old stars in both the bulge and disk of the Spindle. This image was taken with the 2MASS telescope on Mt. Hopkins near Tucson, Arizona; field size is 7x7'; image mosaic by S. Van Dyk (IPAC).

Last Modification: June 9, 2006