APOD post: Dusty Spiral M66
M66 is the 66th object found by Messier. It is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Leo. Throughout its disk, new born stars are clustered. In the center, active star-formation is also occurring. The galaxy is about 35 million light years away and is part of what is called the "Leo Triplet." Two other galaxies are neighboring M66, (M65 and NGC3628) and it is thought that the gravity interactions between the galaxies is what gives M66 its odd and distorted appearance. Of the three, M66 is the largest galaxy with an apparent diameter of 8x2.5 arc min or 100,000 light years across.