... Of course M96 is a spiral galaxy, and counting the faint arms extending beyond the brighter central region it spans 100 thousand light-years or so, about the size of our own Milky Way. vdB 152: Reflection Nebula in Cepheus . ... The blue color typical of reflection nebula is caused by blue light being more efficiently scattered by the carbon dust than red light. ... Cataloged as M3 (and NGC 5272), it is one of about 150 globular star clusters that roam the halo of our Milky Way Galaxy. ...