Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn)  ·  Contains:  M 63  ·  NGC 5055  ·  Sunflower galaxy
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M63 Sunflower Galaxy, urmymuse
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M63 Sunflower Galaxy

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
M63 Sunflower Galaxy, urmymuse
Powered byPixInsight

M63 Sunflower Galaxy

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Description

My first and so far only go at M63 from back in March

Messier 63 or M63, also known as NGC 5055 or the Sunflower Galaxy, is a spiral galaxy in the northern constellation of Canes Venatici. M63 was first discovered by the French astronomer Pierre Méchain then later verified by his colleague Charles Messier on June 14, 1779. The galaxy became listed as object 63 in the Messier Catalogue. In the mid-19th century, Anglo-Irish astronomer Lord Rosse identified spiral structures within the galaxy, making this one of the first galaxies in which such structure was identified.

This galaxy has a morphological classification of SAbc, indicating a spiral shape with no central bar feature and moderate to loosely wound arms. There is a general lack of large scale continuous spiral structure in visible light, a galaxy form known as flocculent. However, when observed in the near infrared a symmetric, two-arm structure becomes apparent. Each arm wraps 150° around the galaxy and extends out to 13 kly (4 kpc) from the nucleus.

The distance to M63, based upon the luminosity-distance measurement is 8.99 Mpc (29.3 Mly).

M63 is part of the M51 Group, a group of galaxies that also includes M51 (the 'Whirlpool Galaxy

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M63 Sunflower Galaxy, urmymuse