Our ESA/Hubble Picture of the Month features a galaxy spinning out of sync 🫨⁠ ⁠ 🔴 NGC 4698 may look like any other spiral galaxy, but it has a chaotic secret 🤫 it is one of a few known spiral galaxies with a bulge that extends from its disc at a right angle. This is just visible here, the glow of the central bulge peeking above and below the disc.⁠ ⁠ 🔴 That is not all that is unusual about NGC 4698. The stars and gas nearest the galaxy’s centre also rotate perpendicular to the rest of the disc!⁠ ⁠ 🔴 What could cause a galaxy to be so out of sync? Astronomers suspect the answer lies outside the galaxy: gas streaming in may have formed a tilted disc in the galaxy’s centre, and NGC 4698 may also have once experienced a small galactic merger! ⁠ ⁠ For more information check the link in bio.⁠ ⁠ 📷 europeanspaceagency / hubbleesa & NASA , D. Thilker, the MAUVE-HST Team⁠ ⁠ ⁠ #ESA #Hubble