Detection of a Large Amount of Diffuse Extraplanar Dust in NGC 891

Significant discrepancies have been found between the dust masses of edge-on spiral galaxies derived from various tracers (optical/near-infrared, far-infrared/sub-millimeter observations, and the variation of dust attenuation with viewing angle). Here we report the first detection of a vertically extended far-ultraviolet (FUV) and near-UV (NUV) emission in an edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 891. The vertically extended emission is interpreted as the dust-scattered light due to a extraplanar dust layer in NGC 891 that contains about the same mass as the standard thin dust disk. This new dust component completely encloses the stellar disk and bulge, and solves the puzzle of dust mass.