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Astronomy Magazine Print Version Reader Gallery November, 2009 Edition

Anacortes Telescope and Wild Bird Picture of the Day April 29, 2009

Messier 61 (NGC 4303) is a large barred spiral galaxy in the southernmost part of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies located between e Virginis (Vindemiatrix) and b Leonis (Denebola). It has three arms that contain many clumps of new star clusters and HII regions.

M61 is both a starburst and a low luminosity Seyfert type 2 galaxy. These two phenomena may not just coexist in galaxies like M61, but may be co-dependant.

M61 was discovered by Barnabus Oriani on May 5, 1779 when following the comet of that year, 6 days before Charles Messier's discovery, who had seen it on the same day as Oriani but mistaken it for the comet. Messier mistook it for two nights more, until he realized that it did not move. (SEDS)

M61 is one of the larger galaxies in the Virgo cluster; its 6 arc minutes of diameter correspond to about 100,000 light years, similar to the diameter of the Milky Way galaxy. It lies about 60 million light years from earth.

Companion barred spiral NGC 4303A can be seen to the lower left of M61, and Elliptical NGC 4292 in the upper left. Hundreds of other faint, distant galaxies are present in the background - as would be expected of any field taken in Virgo.

April 16, 2009