Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn)  ·  Contains:  M 106  ·  NGC 4248  ·  NGC 4258
Messier 106, Greg Allegretti
Messier 106
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Messier 106

Messier 106, Greg Allegretti
Messier 106
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Messier 106

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Description

Discovered in 1718, Messier 106 (NGC 4258) is a large spiral galaxy found 24 million light years distant toward the constellation Canes Venatici. Visual magnitude is 8.4 and apparent size is 18’.

This active galaxy holds a super-massive black hole at its center. The black hole powers energetic emissions at essentially all observed wavelengths. Of particular interest is the pair of luminous jets seen flowing from the center at 8:00 and 2:00 in this image. The former appears particularly focused. These jets which are reveled here in light of excited hydrogen represent hot gas ejected from the black hole’s accretion disk which then collides with the cooler gas in the galaxy’s disk and halo. This process creates the appearance of four spiral arms, but only two contain star clouds. The other two being the gas jets. A smaller companion galaxy, NGC 4248 is seen at right.

This image was captured under high desert skies near Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA.

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Messier 106, Greg Allegretti