Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA and the LEGUS Team
Acknowledgement: R. Gendler
Acknowledgement: R. Gendler
This new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows Messier 96, a spiral galaxy just over 35 million light-years away in the constellation of Leo
(The Lion). It is of about the same mass and size as the Milky Way. It
was first discovered by astronomer Pierre Méchain in 1781, and added to Charles Messier’s famous catalogue of astronomical objects just four days later.
The
galaxy resembles a giant maelstrom of glowing gas, rippled with dark
dust that swirls inwards towards the nucleus. Messier 96 is a very
asymmetric galaxy; its dust and gas is unevenly spread throughout its
weak spiral arms, and its core is not exactly at the galactic centre.
Its arms are also asymmetrical, thought to have been influenced by the
gravitational pull of other galaxies within the same group as Messier
96.
This group, named the M96 Group, also includes the bright galaxies Messier 105 and Messier 95,
as well as a number of smaller and fainter galaxies. It is the nearest
group containing both bright spirals and a bright elliptical galaxy
(Messier 105).
Source: ESA/Hubble - Space Telescope
