M63 Sunflower Galaxy (Jeff Weiss)

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

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M63 Sunflower Galaxy

Link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/9906726@N08/28043495778/in/dateposted-public/

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M63 Sunflower Galaxy

Link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/9906726@N08/28043495778/in/dateposted-public/

M63 (also known as the Sunflower Galaxy and NGC 5055) is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici consisting of a central disc surrounded by many short spiral arm segments, the galaxy form known as flocculent. M63 is part of the M51 Group, which also includes M51 (the 'Whirlpool Galaxy'). M63 has an active galaxy nucleus. The existence of a super massive black hole (SMBH) at the nucleus is uncertain. If it does exist, then the mass is less than ~1000 solar masses which is pretty small for an SMBH [based on Wikipedia]

One of the bright spiral galaxies visible in the north sky, M63, complete with long winding spiral arms glowing blue from a few bright young stars, … and dark dust in numerous filaments. M63 interacts gravitationally with M51. It is 35 million light years away and 60K light years across, containing ~400 million stars. Stars in the outer regions of the Sunflower Galaxy rotate about the center at a speed so high that, given the matter seen and assuming normal gravity, they should fly off into space. The fact that the stars remain indicates that substantial dark matter is gravitationally binding them [based on APOD write-up].

This 7.8 hr LRGB image combines 5.2 hrs of new 2018 LRGB data using the ML-16200 with 2.7 hrs old luminosity data from 2013 using the ST-2000M.

D.A.R.C. Observatory, Mercey Hot Springs , CA, 6/8/13 (2.7 hr Lum), 4/13/18 (2.7 hr Lum, 2.5 hr RGB)

The M63 Tidal Streams are seen in an inverted and further-stretched version of this image which is then compared in the image at the link above with the published M63 Tidal Stream paper by Chonis, et al., Astrophysical Journal 142 (2011).

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