Messier 106

M106 · NGC 4258

A spiral with anomalous extra arms of hot gas, and a water-maser disk that gives one of the most precise black-hole masses known.

Messier 106, a spiral galaxy
PhotographNASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), and R. Gendler (for the Hubble Heritage Team). Acknowledgment: J. GaBany · Public domain
Spiral
type · Sbc
24 million ly
from Earth · measured
135k ly
across
9.3
apparent magnitude

Because its light is 24 million ly from home, you are seeing Messier 106 as it looked roughly 24 million years ago. The photons left before that much of history had passed, and are only now reaching us.

At the centre
Messier 106 Central Black Hole
A supermassive black hole of 39.0 million ☉.
Zoom in →
Nearest galaxies
WhirlpoolSpiral4.9 million ly
apartSunflowerSpiral6.1 million ly
apartPinwheelSpiral7.3 million ly
apartBlack EyeSpiral11 million ly
apartBode'sSpiral14 million ly
apartCigarStarburst14 million ly
apart
Worlds in the same direction on the sky→

Source: structural data (position, morphology, brightness, redshift) from OpenNGC (CC BY-SA). Distance from published measurements.

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