Explanation:
Big beautiful
spiral galaxy M66
lies a mere 35 million light-years away.
About 100 thousand light-years across, the gorgeous island universe
is well known to astronomers as a
member of the Leo Triplet
of galaxies.
In M66, pronounced dust lanes and
young, blue star clusters
sweep along spiral arms
dotted with the tell-tale glow of pink star forming regions.
This colorful
and deep view also reveals faint extensions beyond the brighter
galactic disk.
Of course, the bright,
spiky stars lie in the foreground,
within our own Milky Way Galaxy, but many, small, distant
background galaxies can be seen in the cosmic
snapshot.
Gravitational interactions
with its neighboring
galaxies have likely influenced the shape of spiral galaxy M66.
