Gorgeous spiral galaxy NGC 3521 is a mere 35 million light-years away, toward the constellation Leo. It is considered to be a flocculent galaxy. Flocculent galaxies are those that are fluffy, patchy and with discontinuous spiral arms as opposed to those galaxies where spiral arms are well-structured (example being Whirlpool Galaxy M51).

Spanning some 50,000 light-years the galaxy has patchy, irregular spiral arms laced with dust and star forming regions. Another thing is different about this galaxy is that it has a bright bulge, gigantic bubble-like shell on top of the core of the galaxy. The shell is likely streams of stars torn from satellite galaxies that have undergone mergers with NGC 3521 in the distant past.