NGC 7217 is an unbarred spiral galaxy with a very active nucleus 50 million light years from here in Pegasus. It features an interesting flocculent spiral structure in three ringed zones. There is a halo, which from recent photometry studies lead to the conclusion that the halo is not an extension of the galactic disk but rather either the outer regions of bulge or a separate component of the galaxy.
This results in NGC 7217 being considered to be one of the most spheroid dominated known spiral galaxies. A recent discovery by Merrifield and Kuijken found a population of counter rotating stars in this galaxy.
Imaged in LRGB in New Mexico, OTA PlaneWave CDK 24
Image Processing: Mark Hanson and Mike Selby