#cosmic
Spiral galaxy, NGC 3521 is about 35 million light-years away, toward the constellation Leo. Relatively bright in planet Earth’s sky, it is easily visible in small telescopes but often overlooked by amateur imagers in favor of other, more popular, spiral galaxies, like M66 and M65. It’s hard to overlook in this colorful cosmic portrait, though. Spanning some 50,000 light-years the galaxy has characteristic patchy, irregular spiral arms laced with dust, pink star forming regions, and clusters of young, blue stars. This image also shows the galaxy embedded in gigantic bubble-like shells. They are likely tidal debris, which are streams of stars torn from satellite galaxies that have undergone mergers with NGC 3521 in the distant past.
Happy Easter to everyone who celebrates!
Image Credit & Copyright: Acquisition - Eric Benson, Processing - Dietmar Hager
