Sometimes I think it's a good idea to start off the week with a gorgeous spiral galaxy. So here's a fantastic example of a flocculent (fluffy or patchy) spiral: NGC 3521 in the constellation of Leo, care of the Very Large Telescope:
[Click to enflocculenate.] NGC 3521 is a mere 35 million light years away (350 quintillion kilometers, a comfy airplane ride of just 50 trillion years or so; ask for an extra bag of peanuts), which is outside our local area but still close as the Universe goes. It's half the size of our Milky Way home, about 50,000 light years across. [Note that it has that same effect I mentioned in an earlier post where the dust on the side of the galaxy closer to us appears darker; the light from intervening stars in that galaxy appear to "fill in" the dust on the other side.] A large ...
