The Earth may not be flat but this galaxy sure is

From the ground, the Earth looks flat.

That’s an illusion of sorts, of course. There’s a lot of evidence the Earth is actually a spheroid if you look carefully. And, obviously, from space our planet is clearly a ball.

This illusion can work in reverse, too. Some disk-shaped galaxies are face-on to us, making them appear as magnificent circular objects, grand and sprawling across tens of thousands of light years.

But seen from the side they appear very different. Disk galaxies, including the M...