NGC3521 with SN 2024-25 AECX

The beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 3521 is only 35 million light years away from us, in the constellation of Leo. Relatively bright in the Earth's sky, NGC 3521 is easily visible in small telescopes, but often overlooked by amateurs in favor of other Lion spirals, such as M66 and M65. We do not understand the reasons for this contempt when we admire this image. Extending over some 50,000 light-years in diameter, its central region is presented to us on this image that highlights the characteristic spiral arms of this galaxy full of dust, regions of glowing star formation and aclusters of young blue stars. This deep field also reveals that NGC 3521 is at the heart of a kind of bubble whose contours are probably made up of surf lines containing stars gravitationally torn from satellite galaxies that have merged in the past with NGC 3521. (credit Ciel des Hommes)