Sunflower Galaxy

flocculent spiral galaxy · M63 · in Canes Venatici

28.8 million light-years from Earth

A spiral without long, clear arms: its stars and dust lie in many short arm segments, like the seeds of a sunflower. A faint loop of stars round it is all that is left of a small galaxy it swallowed.

• 29 million light-years · about 100,000 light-years across
• its arms are many short pieces, not two long ones

kind

galaxy

catalogue

M63 · NGC 5055

size

99,000 light-years across