This strange-looking galaxy is known as the Sombrero Galaxy, due to its resemblance to the famous style of headwear, and lies about 30 million lightyears from Earth.
That means we're viewing this galaxy as it appeared 30 million years ago, long before human beings ever walked the planet.
The Sombrero Galaxy, also known as Messier 104, is seen here by the Dark Energy Camera, which is mounted on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile.
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Pretty big, for a hat
The Sombrero Galaxy looks odd because, from Earth, we only see it edge-on.
Many of the most well-known spiral galaxies are face-on from Earth's perspective, which means we get a full view of their intricate spiral arms and bright centre.
But the Universe isn't always so accommodating.
The Sombrero Galaxy is an example of an edge-on galaxy, which means our view of it is somewhat restricted.
It's 50,000 lightyears across, which means it would take a beam of light 50,000 years to get from one edge of the galaxy to the other.
Scientists know quite a bit about the Sombrero Galaxy, despite its edge-on appearance.
They know it has a system of globular star clusters – among the oldest objects in the Universe – and a supermassive black hole at its centre.
That supermassive black hole is what gives the Sombrero Galaxy its bright core: material falls into the black hole, heats up and glows brightly.
The Dark Energy Camera's new view
The Dark Energy Camera, which captured this image of the Sombrero, was built to lead the Dark Energy Survey, which is observing hundreds of millions of galaxies to give scientists more information about the mysterious force known as dark energy.
Measurements of distant galaxies have revealed that the expansion of the Universe seems to be speeding up, not slowing down.
One proposed theory to explain this is 'dark energy', but scientists still don't know what it is.
The Dark Energy Camera is tasked with looking into deep space to observe distant galaxies and record their motion and condtions.
The camera reveals the Sombrero Galaxy's bright nucleus, surrounded by about 2,000 globular clusters.
Also visible is a thin band of dark, cold dust and hydrogen gas stretching across the edge of the galaxy.
These are the ingredients for star birth and this is where most of the galaxy's star formation occurs.
Also visible is the Sombrero Galaxy's glowing halo, which seems to stretch over three times the width of the galaxy itself.
And the Dark Energy Camera has also captured a stream of stars sweeping across from the south side of the galaxy.
So while the instrument is primarily tasked with untangling unfeasibly complicated physics in order to unlock the secrets of the Universe, it's wonderful to see it can provide us with beautiful cosmic images at the same time.
