Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa)  ·  Contains:  M 109  ·  NGC 3992
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Barred Spiral Galaxy Messier 109, David Schlaudt
Barred Spiral Galaxy Messier 109
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Barred Spiral Galaxy Messier 109

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Barred Spiral Galaxy Messier 109, David Schlaudt
Barred Spiral Galaxy Messier 109
Powered byPixInsight

Barred Spiral Galaxy Messier 109

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This is my first time imaging M109 and was pleasantly surprised by how beautiful it is. It is also a fantastic example of a barred spiral galaxy with its very obvious large central bar. Our own Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy so observing galaxies like M109 can give us some perspective to what our own galaxy looks like from the outside. The central bar is thought to form due to density waves just as the outer arms of the galaxy form. A good analogy for a density wave is a traffic jam. Individual cars flow in and out of the traffic jam but the jam itself persists. In this way stars orbiting the galactic center will also flow in and out of these galactic arm density waves. An interesting implication of this is that while our solar system is currently a part of the Orion arm of the Milky Way it will not stay there forever and will eventually be in a different arm. The formation of the central bar specially as is seen in M109 is thought to be a later stage in the evolution of these density waves in spiral galaxies.

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Barred Spiral Galaxy Messier 109, David Schlaudt