This edge-on view shows the galactic disk as a sharp line in space, its prominent dust lenses forming dense bands of clouds that obscure our view of the galaxy’s brightness. If we could fly over the galaxy, looking down on it, we would see this dust scattered across UGC 10043, possibly the outline of its spiral arms. Despite the obscure nature of the dust, some active star-forming regions shine from behind the dark clouds. We can also see that the galactic center sports a glowing, almost egg-shaped ‘bulge’, rising well above and below the disc. All spiral galaxies have a similar bulge as part of their structure. These bulges hold stars that orbit the galactic center on paths up and down the rotating disk. This is a feature that is not usually evident in images of galaxies. The unusually large size of this bulge compared to the galactic disc is likely due to the siphoning material of UGC 10043 from a nearby dwarf galaxy. This may also be because its disc appears to tilt up at one end and down at the other.
Like most color Hubble images, this image is a composite, made up of several individual snapshots taken by Hubble at different times, each capturing a different wavelength of light. A remarkable aspect of this image is that the two sets of data comprising this image were collected 23 years apart in 2000 and 2023! Hubble’s longevity doesn’t just afford us the ability to make new and better images of old targets. It also provides a long-term archive of data that is more useful only to astronomers.