Leo Triplet galaxies, optical image. These three galaxies are M66 (upper left), M65 (lower left) and NGC 3628 (upper right). They all lie around 35 mi

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Leo Triplet galaxies, optical image. These three galaxies are M66 (upper left), M65 (lower left) and NGC 3628 (upper right). They all lie around 35 million light years from Earth in the constellation Leo. M66 is a face-on barred spiral galaxy. Barred spirals have their arms radiating from an elongated bar-like nucleus rather than the more common spherical one. M65 is seen at more of an angle, and NGC 3628 is seen edge-on, so that its spiral arms are only seen as a dark lane of dust bisecting the nucleus.

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Size: 6824px × 5264px
Photo credit: © ROBERT GENDLER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: 3628, astronomical, astronomy, astrophysical, astrophysics, galaxies, galaxy, group, leo, m65, m66, ngc, space, spiral, spirals, telescope, trio, triplet, universe