ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Paranal Observatory in Chile has captured an amazing new photo of the spiral galaxy Messier 61.
Messier 61 is aligned face-on towards Earth, thus presenting us with a breathtaking view of its structure. The gas and dust of the intricate spiral arms are studded with billions of stars. Image credit: ESO.
Messier 61 is a barred spiral galaxy located in the constellation Virgo, approximately 52.5 million light-years away.
The galaxy has an apparent magnitude of 10.2, is most easily spotted during the month of May and can be observed using a small telescope.
Messier 61 is roughly the size of our own Milky Way Galaxy, with a diameter of around 100,000 light-years.
It was discovered on May 5, 1779 by Italian astronomer Barnaba Oriani. French astronomer Charles Messier noticed it on the same night as Oriani, but he mistook the galaxy for a passing comet.
Also known as M61, NGC 4303, LEDA 40001 and IRAS 12194+0444, Messier 61 is one of the largest members of a massive group of galaxies called the Virgo Cluster.
Galaxy clusters, or groups of galaxies, are among the biggest structures in the Universe to be held together by gravity alone. The Virgo Cluster contains more than 1,300 galaxies and forms the central region of the Local Supercluster, an even bigger gathering of galaxies.
Messier 61 is a type of galaxy known as a starburst galaxy.
Starburst galaxies experience an incredibly high rate of star formation, hungrily using up their reservoir of gas in a very short period of time.
But this is not the only activity going on within the galaxy; an X-ray source has been detected deep at its heart, leading astronomers to believe that a supermassive black hole sits at its core.
Messier 61 has also been host to seven observed supernovae — the most of any galaxy in the Messier catalog.
