Lying roughly 27 million light-years away in Canes Venatici, M63 takes its popular name from the resemblance of its loosely wound, feathery spiral arms to the layered petals of a sunflower. Rather than a grand-design structure, its arms are patchy and discontinuous - the hallmark of a flocculent spiral. The galaxy's disk is inclined about 55 degrees to our line of sight, presenting an elongated oval shape, with a bright compact nucleus surrounded by tightly wound spiral segments and prominent dust...
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