Today's Amateur Astronomy Photo of the Day:

A luminous disk split by shadow, with a disturbed spiral companion caught in a close gravitational encounter

NGC 5078 is an edge-on spiral galaxy classified as SA(s)a? edge-on in the constellation Virgo. Its bright central bulge shines through a prominent dust lane that is notably uneven and asymmetric, hinting at a disk that is no longer in perfect equilibrium. Subtle warping and flaring are visible along the outer edges of the disk, and the surrounding halo shows a slight imbalance in brightness—signatures of gravitational disturbance rather than a pristine, isolated structure.