Ausschnitt im Sternbild

Galaxy M106

Spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici.

Messier 106 or NGC 4258 is a spiral galaxy with the apparent brightness of 8.3 mag in the constellation Canes Venatici. With a distance of about 24 million light years, the galaxy lies in the vicinity of several galaxy groups. M106 has a diameter of about 135,000 light years.

M106
Please click on the image for a bigger view.
Object: M106
Date of exposures: 20.03.2020, 21.03.2020, 11.02.2022, 25.02.2022, 26.02.2022, 27.02.2022
Distance: 24 Mio. Lightyears
Exposures: Lum: 375x 180 Sec., RGB: 334 x 180 Sec., Ha: 9 x 300 Sec. Sum: 35,5 Std.
Telescope: 10'', F4 Newton
Focal length: 1000 mm
Filter: Astrodon LRGB, E-Series, H-Alpha, 5nm
Camera: ASI 1600 MMC Pro
Guiding: Off Axis Guider, Lodestar
Mount: EQ8

The core of the galaxy is active and known as a radio source since the 1950s. In 1995, Brent Tully et al. described that the center is launching a jet, which should be related to the massive central object of this galaxy, discovered the same year. This central object is probably a black hole of almost 40 million solar masses. The two spiral arms are characterized by large quantities of young, massive stars that glow in a bluish light. The galaxy currently runs through a so-called "starburst", in which the rate of star formation is greatly increased. M106 was discovered in July 1781 by Pierre Méchain.

Older version from 2017:

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