The Sunflower Galaxy (also known as Messier 63 or NGC 5055) is a spiral galaxy of nearly 100,000 light-years across – so, about the size of our own Milky Way, located about 37 light-years away in the small northern constellation of Canes Venatici (the Hunting Dogs), while it is receding from us at some 504 kilometers per second. It is part of the M51 Group, a group of galaxies that also includes the Whirlpool Galaxy (Messier 51).
The galaxy consists of a bright yellowish core, a highly warped disk and many blue, patchy spiral arms, streaked with dark dust lanes that can be traced all the way down into the galaxy’s nucleus, forming a ring around the densest region of stars at its center. The galaxy is dotted with pink star forming regions and numerous blue star clusters and has probably undergone bursts of intense star formation.
Faint stellar streams around the Sunflower Galaxy are the remnants of a much smaller dwarf galaxy that was disrupted by the large spiral in a minor merger sometime within the last 5 billion years. The progenitor satellite’s current position and final fate are unknown. The Sunflower Galaxy represents one of several recently discovered examples of an isolated spiral galaxy with a warped disk showing strong evidence of an ongoing minor merger. Other faint, blue “plumes” in the outskirts of the galaxy’s disk – probably unrelated to the tidal stream – are likely extended spiral features related to the galaxy’s complex spiral structure.
(Information from
http://annesastronomynews.com/annes-image-of-the-day-the-sunflower-galaxy/)
Post-processing was quite difficult, I spent a lot of effort to balance the brightness of the core and the surrounding dark clouds, finally making the whole image looks harmonious, the galactic core does not look overexposed and the surrounding dark clouds are clearly visible.
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