Spiral Galaxy M96 from Hubble

Explanation: Dust lanes seem to swirl around the core of Messier 96 in this colorful, detailed portrait of the center of a beautiful island universe . Of course M96 is a spiral galaxy , and counting the faint arms extending beyond the brighter central region , it spans 100 thousand light-years or so, making it about the size of our own Milky Way . M96, also known as NGC 3368 , is known to be about 35 million light-years distant and a dominant member of the Leo I galaxy group . The featured image was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope . The reason for M96 's asymmetry is unclear -- it could have arisen from gravitational interactions with other Leo I group galaxies , but the lack of an intra-group diffuse glow seems to indicate few recent interactions . Galaxies far in the background can be found by examining the edges of the picture.

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