NGC 1097 is a magnificent barred spiral galaxy 50 million light years away. In this false-color image (like they all are from Spitzer, since infrared is invisible to the human eye), stars shine blue and red is the glow from dust.
Unlike many galaxies, this one has star formation actively ongoing in its heart; you can see it as the red ring glowing smack dab in the galaxy's middle. That's dust generated from the stars as they are born. Jutting out from that ring are two faint linear arms which connect to the elliptical ring of dust; again these are loctions of active star birth. Finally, surrounding those, are two long spiral arms stretching out for tens of thousands of light years.
Interestingly, the arm on the left breaks up, seemingly right around that elliptical galaxy. I would've thought that was a distant background galaxy, but I wonder. I've not been able to find any information about it, and its location might just be a cosmic coincidence.Original blog postOriginal press releaseImage credit:NASA/JPL-Caltech/The SINGS Team (SSC/Caltech)