The Splinter Galaxy is the magical place where I decided to set my stage. This real-life spiral galaxy is nested in a group of other galaxies. These galaxy groups include the very bright, Spindle galaxy and countless young stars. You can locate these wonders, deep within the bowls of the Dragon. They hide in plain sight tucked away nestled inside the northern constellation of Draco. The star system spans about 69,000 light-years across, and some 44 million light-years away from Earth — and it is leaving. It's currently traveling away from us at 672 kilometers per second. The Splinter galaxy known as NGC 5907, dubbed the Knife Edge galaxy, (I love that it has two nick-names) was a mystery. It was difficult for scientist to detect because from our perspective looks like a splinter, not the rounded spinning spiral shape we've grown to expect. We could only seen it from exactly edge-on. With recent discoveries they now estimate there are over 1 trillion solar masses in this galaxy. From a sliver to a massive galaxy virtually over night. PERFECT! I made this unique galaxy the sandbox to play out my space opera. The entire galaxy is covered in a transparent outer halo, and it's filled with dust lanes. The globular clusters litter the outer halo, as they are bound to the galaxy by a strong gravitational pull. Maybe, that's what pulled me there in the first place.
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