M85 (Rich Sornborger)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Coma Berenices (Com) · Contains: IC 3292 · M 85 · NGC 4382 · NGC 4394

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M85

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M85

M85 is either an elliptical or a lenticular galaxy. Lenticular galaxies have qualities of both elliptical and spiral galaxies and are sometimes called armless spirals. M85 is interacting with two neighboring galaxies, the spiral NGC 4394 and the elliptical MCG 3-32-38.

Located in the constellation Coma Berenices, M85 is a member of the Virgo cluster of galaxies and was discovered by Charles Messier’s colleague Pierre Méchain in 1781. It lies approximately 60 million light-years away from Earth and is best seen in May. With an apparent magnitude of 9.2, this galaxy is relatively faint and is not easy to spot with binoculars or small telescopes. In telescopes with 8-inch apertures M85 appears as a dim, elongated patch of light. Larger telescopes will reveal more detail in the galaxy.

About 4 billion to 7 billion years ago, M85 likely merged with another galaxy. M85 contains approximately 400 billion stars, and most of these stars are very old. However, the central region contains relatively young stars, under 3 billion years old, and these stars are thought to have formed in a late burst of star formation activity. The core of M85 may contain a supermassive black hole, and in 2006, astronomers spotted a supernova northeast of the galaxy’s center.

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Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

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.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
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.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
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.

Status	Basic success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	4489802
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

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