Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn)  ·  Contains:  M 106  ·  NGC 4231  ·  NGC 4232  ·  NGC 4248  ·  NGC 4258
M106, HaLRGB, Sergiy_Vakulenko
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M106, HaLRGB

M106, HaLRGB, Sergiy_Vakulenko
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M106, HaLRGB

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Description

M106 galaxy dominates on this image. Also known as NGC 4258, M106 is about 80,000 light-years across and 23.5 million light-years away, the largest member of the Canes II galaxy group. For a far far away galaxy, the distance to M106 is well-known in part because it can be directly measured by tracking this galaxy's remarkable maser, or microwave laser emission. Very rare but naturally occurring, the maser emission is produced by water molecules in molecular clouds orbiting its active galactic nucleus.

The following galaxies can also be seen in the image - NGC4248 (bright at the left-bottom of the center), UGC7356 (above M106) and a pair of galaxies NGC4231 & NGC4232 (in the lower left corner of the full-size image). Beneath NGC4248 is also a cluster of distant little fuzzy galaxies.

What interesting is that this image reveals one of the two faint hydrogen jets inside M106 (2 o'clock from galaxy center).

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M106, HaLRGB, Sergiy_Vakulenko

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