Messier 106 is the largest member of a large group of galaxies 26 million light years away. It is receding from us at nearly 500 km/sec.
M106 belongs to a class of galaxy that are very active at their core, emitting a combination of X-rays and radio waves from the very centre. This class is known as Seyfert galaxies.
M106 has a very dense disk and some very faint outer spiral arms, which are not easy to capture. The central disk emits microwave radiation.
By looking at m106 in different wavelengths we can see hot new stars in the ultraviolet. X-ray and radio wavelengths reveal the central X-Ray and radio source, a very dense core of stars at the center (which, at one point, was the highest known concentration of stars in the Universe) with some 40 million solar masses.
APOD recently featured a stunning portrait of M106. You can see it here
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150216.htmlMy image, 45 x 120second images combined and processed in Astroart and Pixinsight.
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