Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                2021 April 9

                                 Messier 106
        Image Credit: NASA, Hubble Legacy Archive, Kitt Peak National
                                Observatory;
             Amateur Data & Processing Copyright: Robert Gendler

   Explanation: Close to the Great Bear (Ursa Major) and surrounded by the
   stars of the Hunting Dogs (Canes Venatici), this celestial wonder was
   discovered in 1781 by the metric French astronomer Pierre Mechain.
   Later, it was added to the catalog of his friend and colleague Charles
   Messier as M106. Modern deep telescopic views reveal it to be an island
   universe - a spiral galaxy around 30 thousand light-years across
   located only about 21 million light-years beyond the stars of the Milky
   Way. Along with a bright central core, this stunning galaxy portrait, a
   composite of image data from amateur and professional telescopes,
   highlights youthful blue star clusters and reddish stellar nurseries
   tracing the galaxy's spiral arms. It also shows off remarkable reddish
   jets of glowing hydrogen gas. In addition to small companion galaxy NGC
   4248 at bottom right, background galaxies can be found scattered
   throughout the frame. M106, also known as NGC 4258, is a nearby example
   of the Seyfert class of active galaxies, seen across the spectrum from
   radio to X-rays. Active galaxies are powered by matter falling into a
   massive central black hole.

                      Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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