![](\"http:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/A_spiral_in_profile_small.jpg\")
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\nThe\u00a0NASA\/ESA Hubble Space Telescope\u00a0sees\u00a0galaxies\u00a0of all shapes, sizes, brightnesses, and orientations in the cosmos. Sometimes, the telescope gazes at a galaxy oriented sideways \u2014 as shown here. The\u00a0spiral galaxy\u00a0featured in this\u00a0Picture of the Week\u00a0is called NGC 3717, and it is located about 60 million light-years away in the constellation of\u00a0Hydra (The Sea Serpent).\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nSeeing a spiral almost in profile, as Hubble has here, can provide a vivid sense of its three-dimensional shape. Through most of their expanse, spiral galaxies are shaped like a thin pancake. At their cores, though, they have bright, spherical, star-filled bulges that extend above and below this disc, giving these galaxies a shape somewhat like that of\u00a0a flying saucer\u00a0when they are seen edgeon.\n<\/p>\n
\nNGC 3717 is not captured perfectly edge-on in this image; the nearer part of the galaxy is tilted ever so slightly down, and the far side tilted up. This angle affords a view across the disc and the central bulge (of which only one side is visible).\u00a0\n<\/p>\n