It is a big spherical one, and one of the largest known, with about 4 trillion stars (our own Galaxy, relatively large one as galaxies go) has about 400 billion and a retinue of ten thousand globular clusters (the Milky Way only has several hundred). Its a strong radio source, and the supermassive black hole at its center is emitting jets of hot plasma tens of thousands of light years long at near-relativistic speeds. The entire galaxy is bathed in xrays which have probably sterilized every planet there so that there is no life at all.

Before we understood the mechanism driving this monster astronomers were clueless as to what was going on there. One mentioned "Perhaps what we're looking at here is a massive industrial accident."