This Hubble image shows the grand design spiral galaxy Messier 100. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble
Posted on 12/11/2018 8:51:35 AM PST by ETL
Messier 100, also known as M100, NGC 4321 and LEDA 40153, is located approximately 50 million light-years away in the constellation of Coma Berenices.
This galaxy is one of the brightest members of the Virgo Cluster, a group of about 1,300 (and possibly up to 2,000) galaxies.
Its apparent magnitude of 10.1 means that, while it can be seen through small telescopes, it will appear only as a faint patch of light. Larger telescopes can resolve more details of the galaxy.
The galaxy was discovered on March 15, 1781 by the French astronomer Pierre Méchain, Charles Messier’s fellow comet hunter who discovered eight comets in his lifetime.
Messier 100 is a stunning example of a grand design spiral galaxy, a type of galaxy with prominent and very well-defined spiral arms.
These dusty structures swirl around the galaxy’s nucleus, and are marked by a flurry of star formation activity that dots Messier 100 with bright blue, high-mass stars.
Messier 100 has a diameter of about 107,000 light-years and hosts an active galactic nucleus, a bright region at the galaxy’s core caused by a supermassive black hole that is actively swallowing material, which radiates brightly as it falls inwards.
The galaxy became famous in the early 1990s with the release of two images of the object taken with Hubble before and after a major repair to the telescope, which illustrated the dramatic improvement in Hubble’s observations.
This new image, taken with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), demonstrates the continued evolution of Hubble’s capabilities over two decades in orbit.
(Excerpt) Read more at sci-news.com ...
Messier 100 (M100) is a grand design spiral galaxy located in the Virgo Cluster, in the constellation Coma Berenices.
The galaxy lies at an approximate distance of 55 million light years from Earth and has an apparent magnitude of 10.1. Its designation in the New General Catalogue is NGC 4321.
M100 occupies an area of 7.4 by 6.3 arc minutes of apparent sky, which corresponds to a linear diameter of 107,000 light years. Located in the southern part of Coma Berenices, it is one of the brightest and largest members of the Virgo Cluster.
The galaxy has a relatively low surface brightness and is difficult to see in small binoculars. In large binoculars and small telescopes, it appears as a dim patch of light.
8-inch telescopes show the galaxy’s bright core surrounded by nebulosity.
Under good conditions, larger amateur telescopes reveal some of the galaxy’s dust structure.
Messier 100 can be found 2 degrees southeast of the magnitude 4.7 star 11 Comae Berenices, north of the line connecting the bright stars Denebola in Leo and Vindemiatrix in Virgo, and slightly closer to Denebola. The best time of year to observe M100 and other galaxies in the Virgo Cluster is during the months of March, April and May.
Messier 100 is a starburst galaxy, with strongest bursts of star formation concentrated within a ring in the centre of the galaxy. The ring is in fact two tightly wound spiral arms connected to a small bar with a radius of 1 kiloparsec. Star formation has been taking place in this region for at least 500 million years in several bursts. The galaxy is estimated to contain about 400 billion stars.
Messier 100 is seen almost face-on. It has two prominent, well-defined spiral arms and several fainter ones. The arms are dotted with numerous star forming regions and clusters of young, hot, blue stars. The southern side of the galaxy contains more young stars, giving M100 a slightly asymmetric appearance. The galaxy is considerably larger than it appears in conventional photographs. Deep images have revealed that a lot of the galaxy’s mass is contained in its fainter outer regions.
Like most spiral galaxies in the Virgo Cluster, M100 is deficient in neutral hydrogen compared to similar galaxies that are isolated. As a result, M100 is not showing signs of star formation in the rest of the disk. The galaxy is experiencing ram pressure stripping as it moves through the Virgo Cluster and the process is leaving it without gas.
Messier 100 has two satellite galaxies – NGC 4323 and NGC 4328 – connected to M100 by a bridge of luminous matter.
Observations with the Hubble Space Telescope have revealed more than 20 Cepheid variables and a nova in M100. The Cepheids were used to measure the distance to the galaxy.
Five supernovae have also been observed in M100: SN 1901B (Type I, mag. +15.6) in March 1901, SN 1914angstrom (unknown type, mag. +15.7) in February and March of 1914, SN 1959E (Type I, mag. +17.5) in August and September of 1959, detected in 1960 about 58 arc minutes east and 21 arc seconds south of the galaxy’s nucleus, SN 1979C (Type II, mag. +11.6) detected on April 15, 1979, and SN 2006X (mag. +15.3), discovered on February 7, 2006.
thank you for posting this!
APOD Ping!
Hubble’s view of the M100 galactic nucleus before (left) and after (right) repairs to correct
the telescope’s deformed mirror. Credit: NASA/STScI/JPL
This repair of the Hubble ranks, in my mind, with the Apollo 13 save, as the best of NASA making lemonade!
Those are spectacular! Thanks for posting them.
To the right of the spiral on the third picture — a galaxy is evident as a small saucer shape.
Beautiful. Thank you.
Oops, I should have seen that the Hubble fix was already mentioned. Still these images are striking!
Awesome!
Thank You for posting these.
There are Messy Galaxies and then there are Messier Galaxies. I like the Messier ones better.
Then there are the Messiest:
The Barfing Galaxy, the Drab Nebula, the DumbDumbbell.
M100 is a very nice member of the Virgo group
Just below is Markarian’s Chain. A truly wonderful site in low power.
Thanks ETL. Just when you thought you'd seen some messy objects, along comes Charles Messier and points out some that are even messier.
That was for all of us.
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