NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Collection

M106 in Canes Venatici

Close to the Great Bear (Ursa Major) and surrounded by the stars [ http://www.enchante…constellations.shtml ] of the Hunting Dogs (Canes Venatici), this celestial nebula was discovered [ http://www.seds.org…] in 1781 by the metric [ http://www.britanni…] French astronomer Pierre Mechain [ http://www.seds.org…pmechain.html ]. Later, it was added to the catalog of his friend and colleague Charles Messier as M106 [ http://www.seds.org…]. Modern deep telescopic views reveal it to be an island universe [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] -- a spiral galaxy around 30 thousand light-years across located only about 21 million light-years beyond the stars of the Milky Way. Youthful blue star clusters and reddish stellar nurseries trace the striking spiral arms of M106. Seen so clearly in this beautiful image [ http://www.noao.edu…], the galaxy's bright core is also visible across the spectrum [ http://coolcosmos.i…multiwavelength_astr onomy/multiwavelengt h_astronomy/ ] from radio to x-rays, making M106 a nearby example of the Seyfert class [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] of active galaxies. The bright core of a Seyfert galaxy is believed to be powered by matter falling into a massive central black hole [ http://csep10.phys.…smblack.html ].

Bernie and Jay Slotnick, Adam Block [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…], AOP [ http://www.noao.edu…], NOAO [ http://www.noao.edu/], AURA [ http://www.aura-ast…], NSF [ http://www.nsf.gov/]

1781

M106

Pierre

Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)

Aura

Canes Venatici

Ursa Major

TRACE

1781

http://antwrp.gsfc.…

SPD-APOD-ap050730