The bird's eye view of NGC 6744 gives a good idea of what our own galaxy would look like to a passing space traveller.
The spiral galaxy is around 30 million light years away in the southern constellation of Pavo, the Peacock.
In the new image from European Southern Observatory astronomers it is seen almost face on, so that the striking spiral arms are clearly visible.
NGC 6744 would almost be an identical twin of the Milky Way were it not for its size.
While our own galaxy is roughly 100,000 light years across, it has nearly twice that diameter.
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