Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Leo (Leo)  ·  Contains:  M 65  ·  M 66  ·  NGC 3623  ·  NGC 3627  ·  NGC 3628
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The Leo Triplet (M66 Group), JohnEEvans
The Leo Triplet (M66 Group)
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The Leo Triplet (M66 Group)

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The Leo Triplet (M66 Group), JohnEEvans
The Leo Triplet (M66 Group)
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The Leo Triplet (M66 Group)

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Description

The Leo Triplet, or M66 Group, is a group of spiral, interacting, galaxies in the constellation Leo. They are about 35 million light-years away. The gravitational interaction of the galaxies is starting to warp then.

Messier 66 (NGC 3627), bottom right, is the largest and brightest galaxy of the three and is about 95 light-years across. For reference, this is about 1,000 times smaller than our Milky Way.

Messier 65 (NGC 3623), top right, has less dust and gas and shows little signs of ongoing star formation.

NGC 3628, left, is an unbarred spiral galaxy, edge-on to Earth. This is nick-named the "Hamburger Galaxy".

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The Leo Triplet (M66 Group), JohnEEvans