NGC 3521 (Please Zoom In)
OTA: CDK17
Camera: SBIG
STXL11002with AOX and FW8G (0.63 arsec/pxl)
Observatory: Heaven’s Mirror, Chile
EXPOSURES:
Red: 14 x 1200 sec.
Blue: 14 x 1200
Green: 14 x 1200
L: 18 x 1200
H: 9 x 1800 (2x2 used as a red mask only)
Total exposure 24.5 hours
Image Width: ~40 arc-minutes
Processed by Alex Woronow (2020) using PixInsight, Topaz, SWT
NGC 3521 has been classified as a “flocculent” spiral galaxy, referring to the patchiness of its spiral arms, which becomes more apparent after zooming in. This characteristic is believed to arise from the stellar winds emanating from recently formed giant stars, which produce shockwaves that compress the surrounding gasses. This compression also initiates the generation of new stars. This has been called, “Infection propagation.”
Like other flocculent galaxies, NGC 3521 lacks the clearly defined, arcing structure to its spiral arms that shows up in most spiral galaxies. Instead, NGC 3521 displays fluffy discontinuous patches of stars and dust more or less laid out in a spiraling-arms pattern. About 10% of galaxies contain this flocculent form.
NGC 3521 hosts a ULX source. Ultra-luminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are point sources in the sky that are so bright in X-rays that each emits more radiation than a million suns emit at all wavelengths. ... Most galaxies (including our own Milky Way) have none, and those galaxies that do host a ULX usually contain only one. An accessible discussion of the possible nature of ULX sources resides here:
https://sites.ualberta.ca/~jgladsto/Site/ULXs.html.
NGC 3521 lies about 26.2M light-years from us and is at about 11th magnitude and about 11 arc minutes across (excluding the extended cloud), making it accessible to observers
with modest telescopes, where, visually, it appears as a roughly circular blurred bright smear. From this appearance, it takes its folk-name, the “Bubble Galaxy.”
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