NGC 3115 is a Lenticular Galaxy 49 million light years away in Sextans. It exhibits limited apparent features although there are several dust lanes evident. There is a galactic bulge and prominent disk.
Lenticular galaxies like NGC 3115 are intermediate states between spiral and elliptical galaxies. This galaxy, has an aging stellar population with virtually no new star formation. The galaxy is seen edge on and is notable for the supermassive black hole at its center. It is estimated that the black hole within NGC 3115 has a mass roughly one billion times the mass of our Sun.
Imaged in LRGB on our Planewave CDK 1000 at Observatorio El Sauce, Chile.
Image Processing: Mike Selby and Mark Hanson