A NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image displays the galaxy IC 335 with distant galaxies providing a breathtaking backdrop. IC 335 is located 60 million light-years away in the Fornax Galaxy Cluster.
The disk of IC 335 is difficult to identify since it is only seen on its edge from Earth. Classifiable characteristics of a galaxy, like the arms of a spiral or a bar across the middle, are only seen on the galaxy's face. However, astronomers classified the galaxy as an S0 type, according to Phys.org.
Lenticular (lens-shaped) galaxies are in between a true spiral and an elliptical galaxy. Like spiral galaxies, lenticular galaxies have a thin stellar disk and a bulge, but unlike a spiral they used up most of the material that would create new stars, according to Phys.org. The star formation is very low in these types of galaxies, so S0 galaxies typically contain aging stars, like elliptical galaxies.
The spiral arms of S0 galaxies are not well defined, so they can be mistaken for elliptical galaxies, according to Phys.org. They do not have the violent interactions that spiral and elliptical galaxies have. They have either never interacted with other galaxies or they are a merger of two spiral galaxies at the end of a long marriage.
There is still debate as to the exact nature of these types of galaxies, according to Phys.org.
