Explanation:
A bright spiral galaxy of the northern sky,
Messier 63
is about 25 million light-years distant in the
loyal constellation
Canes Venatici.
Also cataloged as NGC 5055, the majestic
island universe
is nearly 100,000 light-years across, about the size
of our own Milky Way.
Known by the popular moniker, The Sunflower Galaxy,
M63 sports a bright yellowish core and sweeping blue spiral arms,
streaked with cosmic dust lanes and
dotted with pink star forming regions.
But this deep
exposure also shows remarkable
faint loops and extensions of the galaxy's spiral arms.
A dominant member of a known
galaxy
group, M63's faint extended features could be the result of
gravitational
interactions
with nearby galaxies.
M63 also
shines across
the electromagnetic spectrum and is thought to have
undergone
bursts of intense
star
formation.
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