This object is a spiral galaxy located 30 million light-years away in the constellation of Leo at a declination of 0 degrees. It is about 100,000 light years in diameter and spans 11 arc-minutes in our apparent view. The galaxy is 30 degrees from edge-on, which allows us to see characteristics which are typical for both edge-on and face-on galaxies. This is one of my favorite unsung galaxies.
The galaxy has a number of interesting qualities - the flocculent nature of the multiple arms, the blue star clouds and pink Ha regions, the detailed dust lanes (including one at the bottom which appears to veer out of plane), and the bright central core.
But there are two things which make this galaxy even more special. The first is the galaxy's roughly spherical halo of stars which encompasses the disk. Once your eyes adjust to it a bit, the "bubble" gives the galaxy a 3-D type of appearance. It looks to me like the whole galaxy is steaming. Scientists believe that this tidal stream of stars is the result from one or more galaxies which have merged with NGC 3521 long ago.
The second thing is difficult to see at first, but then obvious once you are aware of it. The bright disk of the inner region is hexagonal in shape. The outer disk also appears a bit hexagonal, likely due to the presence of
VV rows. Hexagonal shapes occur many places throughout nature but those seen in galaxies are the largest scale hexagons in the universe. My poster of hexagonal galaxies is
here.
Numerous faint galaxies are visible in the background.
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