The most distinctive features of the bright galaxy NGC 3521 are its long spiral arms that are dotted with star-forming regions and interspersed with veins of dust. The arms are rather irregular and patchy, making NGC 3521 a typical example of a flocculent spiral galaxy. These galaxies have "fluffy" spiral arms that contrast with the sweeping arms of grand-design spirals such as the famous Whirlpool galaxy or M 51, discovered by Charles Messier.
This picture of the nearby galaxy NGC 3521 was taken using the FORS1 instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope, at the Paranal Observatory in Chile. The large spiral galaxy lies in the constellation of Leo (The Lion), and is only 35 million light-years distant. This picture was created from exposures taken through three different filters that passed blue light, yellow/green light and near-infrared light. These are shown in this picture as blue, green and red, respectively.
Credit: ESO/O. Maliy
NGC 3521 is bright and relatively close-by, and can easily be seen with a small telescope such as the one used by Messier to catalogue a series of hazy and comet-like objects in the 1700s. Strangely, the French astronomer seems to have missed this flocculent spiral even though he identified several other galaxies of similar brightness in the constellation of Leo.
It was only in the year that Messier published the final version of his catalogue, 1784, that another famous astronomer, William Herschel, discovered NGC 3521 early on in his more detailed surveys of the northern skies. Through his larger, 47-cm aperture, telescope, Herschel saw a "bright center surrounded by nebulosity," according to his observation notes.
In this new VLT picture, colourful, yet ill defined, spiral arms replace Herschel's "nebulosity". Older stars dominate the reddish area in the centre while young, hot blue stars permeate the arms further away from the core.
This chart shows the location of the spiral galaxy NGC 3521 within the constellation of Leo (The Lion). This map shows most of the stars visible to the unaided eye under good conditions and the galaxy itself is marked with a red ellipse in a red circle. This galaxy can be easily seen with a small telescope.
Credit: ESO, IAU and Sky & Telescope
Oleg Maliy, who participated ESO's Hidden Treasures 2010 competition [1], selected the data from the FORS1 instrument on ESO's VLT at the Paranal Observatory in Chile that were used to create this dramatic image. Exposures taken through three different filters that passed blue light (coloured blue), yellow/green light (coloured green), and near-infrared light (coloured red) have been combined to make this picture. The total exposure times were 300 seconds per filter. Oleg's image of NGC 3521 was a highly ranked entry in the competition, which attracted almost 100 entries.
Contacts and sources:
Richard Hook This picture of the nearby galaxy NGC 3521 was taken using the FORS1 instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope, at the Paranal Observatory in Chile. The large spiral galaxy lies in the constellation of Leo (The Lion), and is only 35 million light-years distant. This picture was created from exposures taken through three different filters that passed blue light, yellow/green light and near-infrared light. These are shown in this picture as blue, green and red, respectively.
NGC 3521 is bright and relatively close-by, and can easily be seen with a small telescope such as the one used by Messier to catalogue a series of hazy and comet-like objects in the 1700s. Strangely, the French astronomer seems to have missed this flocculent spiral even though he identified several other galaxies of similar brightness in the constellation of Leo.
It was only in the year that Messier published the final version of his catalogue, 1784, that another famous astronomer, William Herschel, discovered NGC 3521 early on in his more detailed surveys of the northern skies. Through his larger, 47-cm aperture, telescope, Herschel saw a "bright center surrounded by nebulosity," according to his observation notes.
In this new VLT picture, colourful, yet ill defined, spiral arms replace Herschel's "nebulosity". Older stars dominate the reddish area in the centre while young, hot blue stars permeate the arms further away from the core.
This chart shows the location of the spiral galaxy NGC 3521 within the constellation of Leo (The Lion). This map shows most of the stars visible to the unaided eye under good conditions and the galaxy itself is marked with a red ellipse in a red circle. This galaxy can be easily seen with a small telescope.
Oleg Maliy, who participated ESO's Hidden Treasures 2010 competition [1], selected the data from the FORS1 instrument on ESO's VLT at the Paranal Observatory in Chile that were used to create this dramatic image. Exposures taken through three different filters that passed blue light (coloured blue), yellow/green light (coloured green), and near-infrared light (coloured red) have been combined to make this picture. The total exposure times were 300 seconds per filter. Oleg's image of NGC 3521 was a highly ranked entry in the competition, which attracted almost 100 entries.
Contacts and sources:
ESO, La Silla, Paranal, E-ELT and Survey Telescopes Public Information Officer
Garching bei München, Germany
[1] ESO's Hidden Treasures 2010 competition gave amateur astronomers the opportunity to search through ESO's vast archives of astronomical data, hoping to find a well-hidden gem that needed polishing by the entrants. To find out more about Hidden Treasures, visithttp://www.eso.org/public/outreach/hiddentreasures/
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