Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Leo (Leo)  ·  Contains:  NGC 3521
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NGC 3521 - Bubble Galaxy, Doug Summers
NGC 3521 - Bubble Galaxy
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NGC 3521 - Bubble Galaxy

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
NGC 3521 - Bubble Galaxy, Doug Summers
NGC 3521 - Bubble Galaxy
Powered byPixInsight

NGC 3521 - Bubble Galaxy

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Description

Located ~40 million light years distant in the direction of Leo, NGC 3521 has several interesting characteristics.   It's an obvious flocculent spiral in it's core, but it also has wider spiral structure further out in the arms.  The galaxy must have undergone a serious encounter with another galaxy in the not so distant past, as there are huge clouds of stars surrounding the main spiral structure.    Could the remains of the interacting galaxy be those outer arms?  The galaxy has the nickname "bubble galaxy" due to the extreme edges of the stellar scatter.   In this image, that outermost shell of stars is just barely visible.  The galaxy is cropped to highlight the internal structures.   There are also some nice smaller fuzzies in the field with their own nice structures.

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Revisions

    NGC 3521 - Bubble Galaxy, Doug Summers
    Original
    NGC 3521 - Bubble Galaxy, Doug Summers
    C
  • Final
    NGC 3521 - Bubble Galaxy, Doug Summers
    D

C

Description: Reprocessed to see if I couldn't resolve that outer "bubble" a bit better.

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D

Description: A touch of secondary noise reduction, and a slight curves adjustment to the core.

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NGC 3521 - Bubble Galaxy, Doug Summers

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