The spectacular spiral galaxy Messier 66 is only 31 million light-years away from Earth and now, thanks to the European Southern Observatory (ESO), we can see a beautiful image taken by the Multiple Unit Spectroscopic Explorer ( MUSE) on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) of a large portion of the intermediate spiral galaxy Messier 66. The VLT was the last telescope to be installed at ESO ‘s Paranal Observatory (eso1119) on the Paranal hill located in the desert Atacama, in northern Chile: the most advanced visible light astronomical observatory in the world.
Located in the constellation Leo, this galaxy was discovered on March 1, 1780 by the French astronomer Charles Messier , who described it as “very large and very faint” (Messier was the creator of the catalog of 110 deep-sky objects that constitute the catalog of Messier objects).
One galaxy, many names
Also known as M66, NGC 3627, Arp 16, IRAS 11176+1315, LEDA 34695, and UGC 6346, this beautiful intermediate spiral galaxy is 95,000 light-years in diameter. As we can see, it is spiral shaped with a weak bar feature and loose arms.
As we anticipated at the beginning, Messier 66 forms part, together with Messier 65 and NGC 3628, of the Leo Triplet (M66 group), a small group of galaxies about 35 million light-years away in the Leo constellation. Likewise, Messier 66 is also a member of a large group of galaxies called the NGC 3627 group.
“This image of Messier 66 was taken with the MUSE instrument on the Very Large Telescope,” the ESO astronomers said. “But why does it have these unusual colors? The image is a combination of observations made in different wavelengths of light, but instead of seeing the stars of this galaxy, as in more classic images, what this image shows is gas ionized by newborn stars, with hydrogen, oxygen and sulfur in red, blue and orange, respectively”.
PHANGS Project
As the astronomers explain, this fantastic new image of Messier 66 was taken as part of the Physics at High Angular Resolution in Nearby Galaxies project, PHANGS ( Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS).
“PHANGS is using telescopes that operate at all wavelengths to make high-resolution observations of nearby galaxies. The aim of the project is to better understand what triggers, drives or slows down the formation of new stars in different environments ”, the experts conclude.
Reference: HUBBLE / ESO / PHANGS.
