 M96's core is also displaced from the galactic center. Its gas and dust are distributed asymmetrically, and its spiral arms are ill-defined. But this portrait, taken with ESO's very large telescope, shows that imperfections can be beautiful. The galaxy's core is compact but glowing, and the dark dust lanes around it move in a delicate swirl towards the nucleus. The spiral arms' patchy rings of young blue stars are like a necklace of blue pearls. Its graceful imperfections likely result from the gravitational pull from nearby galaxies. M96 spans 100,000 light-years in diameter, about the size of our Milky Way.