Actually (if you insist on being technical about it), astronomers refer to it as a “flocculent” spiral galaxy, but it means pretty much the same thing. Seriously, look it up.
This recent picture of spiral galaxy NGC 3521, snapped through the lens of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Very Large Telescope, captures in stunning detail a flocculent galaxy’s most distinguishing features: long, patchy, and irregular spiral arms that take on a distinctively wooly appearance when photographed from 35 million light years away — much like they do here.
Residing in the constellation of Leo and spanning about 50,000 light-years, the ESO says that NGC 3521 is close enough and bright enough that it can easily be spotted with a small telescope, like the one used by British astronomer William Herschel when he discovered the galaxy in the 18th century.
Via the ESO
