This
Astrobin Debut Object is one of the largest and most luminous grand spiral galaxies in the known universe. It is a near face-on barred spiral galaxy located 260 million light years away in the constellation of Cetus at a declination of -10 degrees. This magnitude 12 galaxy spans 2.6 arc-minutes in our apparent view, which corresponds to a huge diameter of over 200,000 light years. I calculate our viewing angle to be about 30 degrees from face-on.
I find the disk of this galaxy to be fascinating. This is one of those puzzling, crazy multi-arm chaotic disk structures which I have seen with several galaxies. The most intriguing aspect of this structure, aside from trying to count the number of arms, is that no close companions have been identified as the cause of the disturbance. The small spiral galaxy seen at the bottom of NGC 309 is much further away, at 0.75 billion light years.
Blue star clouds are visible in the arms, which are well defined but hard to trace in a definitive pattern. Several straight VV rows are seen in the arms. A pseudo-ring has formed around the yellow barred core.
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