Such a Lovely Face
NGC 488 is a face-on spiral galaxy that lies about 95 million light-years away in the constellation Pisces. While its distance from us makes it appear small, the glorious spinning disk of this spiral spans 150,000 light-years, half again the diameter of our home galaxy. Also of note is that the stars in the disk of NGC 488 are orbiting the galaxy at about 360 kilometers per second (over 800,000 mph), more than 1.5 times faster than our Sun orbits the Milky Way.
To explore a larger version of this best yet image of NGC 488, go here. Not only will you see some amazing detail in the spiral, but you can have a look at a myriad of more distant galaxies in the frame.
Image credit and copyright: Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona
Sources
Deep-Sky Companions: The Secret Deep, Volume 4 (Cambridge University Press)
tinfoilparachute 