The Splinter Galaxy is the side-on view of a spiral galaxy composed mostly of dwarf stars with very few detectable giant stars. It has a surprisingly low metallicity which means that most of its physical matter is composed of hydrogen and helium and lacks other types of elements. Unlike other spiral galaxies it has an apparently weak bulge in its centre which makes this galaxy more anomalous.

Though not visible in this image as it is too faint to detect from a garden in Wiltshire, a unique feature of the Splinter Galaxy is its tidal stream, which is most likely the remnant of a gradual merger of a smaller dwarf galaxy that was slowly ripped apart by NGC 5907 over four billion years ago. The tidal stream appears as a ghostly trail of debris and stars that is best seen in very deep exposures and extends up to 150,000ly from the Splinter Galaxy. However, the tidal stream could also exist because of the merger of two equally sized galaxies that resulted in the larger Splinter Galaxy being formed and the ejection of debris to form the streams.