The Leo Trio, or Leo Triplet, is a group of three galaxies located in Leo.

This galaxy group is made up of Messier 65 at top right, M66 at bottom right, and NGC 3628 at left. All three are part of a gravitationally interacting system.

All are normal spiral galaxies, but tilted at different angles to our line of sight. NGC 3628 is seen edge-on, with a prominent dust lane obscuring the central portion of the galaxy. M65 is a normal-looking spiral galaxy. M66 is a spiral with deformed spiral arms. NGC 3628 is an edge-on galaxy with tidally distorted ends and a giant tidal tail (not visible in this image) that stretches 300,000 light-years from the galaxy. M66 and NGC 3628's distortions are caused by gravitational interactions in the group.

The Leo Trio is located 35 million light-years away. Each galaxy has a diameter of 100,000 light-years, the same size as the Milky Way. At that distance, this field of view is 400,000 light-years across.

M65 and M66 were discovered by Charles Messier in 1780. NGC 3628 Discovered by William Herschel in 1784.

North is to the left in this image.

Messier 65, Messier 66, NGC 3628 Catalogs: M65: NGC 3623 M66: NGC 3627 NGC 3628: UGC 6350 Common Name: Leo Trio, Leo Triplet Object Type: Galaxy Group M65: SAB(rs)a Galaxy M66: SAB(s)b Galaxy NGC 3628: Sb pec edge-on Galaxy Magnitude: M65: 9.2v M66: 8.9v NGC 3628: 9.6v Size: M65: 9.8' x 2.9' M66: 9.1' x 4.1' NGC 3628: 13.1' x 3.1' Constellation: Leo Image Field Centered At: RA: 11h 19m 45s Dec: +13° 16' 13" Individual galaxy coordinates can be found in the Master List.