Today's Amateur Astronomy Photo of the Day:

In the quiet northern constellation of Leo Minor lies NGC 3344, a graceful face-on spiral galaxy about 25 million light-years from Earth. Its delicate, tightly wound arms sparkle with clusters of young blue stars while a faint inner ring encircles the glowing core, giving the galaxy a layered appearance that has earned it the nickname “Sliced Onion Galaxy.” Though smaller than the Milky Way, NGC 3344 is rich in star formation and offers astronomers an unusually clear view of spiral structure thanks to its near-perfect orientation toward Earth.