Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                2021 April 2

                        NGC 3521: Galaxy in a Bubble
      Image Credit & Copyright: Acquisition - Eric Benson, Processing -
                                Dietmar Hager

   Explanation: Gorgeous spiral galaxy NGC 3521 is a mere 35 million
   light-years away, toward the constellation Leo. Relatively bright in
   planet Earth's sky, NGC 3521 is easily visible in small telescopes but
   often overlooked by amateur imagers in favor of other Leo 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 sports
   characteristic patchy, irregular spiral arms laced with dust, pink star
   forming regions, and clusters of young, blue stars. Remarkably, this
   deep image also finds NGC 3521 embedded in gigantic bubble-like shells.
   The shells are likely tidal debris, streams of stars torn from
   satellite galaxies that have undergone mergers with NGC 3521 in the
   distant past.

         Tomorrow's picture: How far light travels over the weekend.
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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