Seen here from an edge-on perspective, UGC 1281 is a slightly warped dwarf galaxy with an apparent visual magnitude of 12.6.

It is located in the constellation of Triangulum, about 18 million light-years away from our Solar System.

The bright companion to the lower left of UGC 1281 is the small galaxy PGC 6700, also known as 2MASX J01493473+3234464.

Other prominent stars belonging to our own galaxy, the Milky Way, and more distant galaxies can be seen scattered throughout the sky.

The side-on view astronomers have of UGC 1281 makes it a perfect candidate for studies into how gas is distributed within galactic halos – an extended, roughly spherical component of a galaxy which extends beyond the main, visible component.

Astronomers have studied UGC 1281 to see how its gas vertically extends out from its central plane, and found it to be a quite typical dwarf galaxy.

However, it does have a slightly warped shape to its outer edges, and is forming stars at a particularly low rate.