M61 Swilling Spiral Galaxy NGC 4303 (Albert Christensen)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Virgo (Vir) · Contains: M 61 · NGC 4292 · NGC 4301 · NGC 4303

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M61 Swilling Spiral Galaxy NGC 4303

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M61 Swilling Spiral Galaxy NGC 4303

Also known as NGC 4303, this galaxy is roughly 100 000 light-years across, comparable in size to our galaxy, the Milky Way. Both Messier 61 and our home galaxy belong to a group of galaxies known as the Virgo Supercluster in the constellation of Virgo (The Virgin) — a group of galaxy clusters containing up to 2000 spiral and elliptical galaxies in total. M61 is about 52.5 million light years from Earth and appears about 6.5 arc minutes in size.

Messier 61 is a type of galaxy known as a starburst galaxy. Starburst galaxies experience an incredibly high rate of star formation, hungrily using up their reservoir of gas in a very short period of time (in astronomical terms). But this is not the only activity going on within the galaxy; deep at its heart there is thought to be a supermassive black hole that is violently spewing out radiation.

M61 is one of the largest members of Virgo Cluster, and belongs to a smaller subgroup known as the S Cloud. The morphological classification of SAB(rs)bc indicates a weakly-barred spiral (SAB) with the suggestion of a ring structure (rs) and moderate to loosely wound spiral arms. It has an active galactic nucleus and is classified as a starburst galaxy containing a massive nuclear star cluster with an estimated mass of 105 solar masses and an age of 4 million years, as well as a central candidate supermassive black hole.

Eight extragalactic supernovae have so far been observed in M61, making it one of the most prodigious galaxies for such cataclysmic events. These include: SN 2020jfo, SN 2014dt, SN 2008in, SN 2006ov, SN 1999gn, SN 1964F, SN 1961I, and the first to be observed, the Type II-K SN 1926A, which appeared on 9 May 1926.... (Wikipedia)

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	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
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	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
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The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

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Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
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Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

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M61 Swilling Spiral Galaxy NGC 4303

M61 Swilling Spiral Galaxy NGC 4303

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M61 Swilling Spiral Galaxy NGC 4303

M61 Swilling Spiral Galaxy NGC 4303

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