Messier 102 is an edge-on lenticular galaxy located in the northern constellation Draco. Also known as the Spindle Galaxy it is 50 million light-years from Earth and contains around 100 billion stars. Messier 102 has a unusual prominent extended central dust disk that appears almost exactly edge-on when seen from Earth. Charles Messier, the 18th century French astronomer, catalogued over 100 galaxies and clusters. Through the telescopes available at the time, comets, nebulae, globular clusters and galaxies appeared just as faint, diffuse blobs. This image was taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.