M66 (Denis Janky)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Leo (Leo) · Contains: Leo Triplet · M 66 · NGC 3627 · PGC 1421317

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M66

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M66

M66

M66 (also catalogued as NGC3627) is a spiral galaxy located in the constellation Leo. It is classified as an intermediate spiral galaxy, which means its core structure falls somewhere between barred and unbarred. M65 and M66 were discovered by Charles Messier in 1780, and along with NGC3628, these form the famous Leo Triplet of galaxies. These galaxies are gravitationally interacting, which causes structural distortions. Much of the distortion of M66 is due to neighboring NGC3628, and it manifests as very high central mass concentration that seems slightly off-center, and an asymmetric spiral structure. As a result, M66 is also catalogued in Halton Arp’s Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies.

M66 is approximately 31 million light years from Earth and is about 95,000 light years in diameter. There are prominent dust lanes, as seen in my image, and evident star forming regions. There have even been five recorded supernovae in M66. Taken together, there seems to be more activity in M66 than in its relatively quiet neighbor, M65.

M66 is easily seen visually through most small telescopes, and depending on the field of view, it may be possible to see all three members of the Leo Triplet in the same field.

Please note: The following tables are updated every 24 hours.

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	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	9116419
PixInsight job	1RWL1W3UGAGCBGMAD4D6REUG7IZPWC1Y
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	11h20m15s.290
RA (top/left)	11h19m37s.119
RA (top/right)	11h20m07s.495
RA (bottom/right)	11h20m52s.841
RA (bottom/left)	11h20m22s.553

Dec (center)	+12°59′05″.40
Dec (top/left)	+13°04′55″.22
Dec (top/right)	+12°48′19″.76
Dec (bottom/right)	+12°53′15″.74
Dec (bottom/left)	+13°09′51″.27

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M66

M66

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Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

M66

M66

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