This galaxy is located in the constellation of Berenice’s Hair, about 60 million light years away from Earth.
There, its bright arms are outlined against the dark space and show great cloud masses where new stars are forming.
The galaxy was discovered, along with its neighboring galaxies Messier 98 and Messier 100, by the French astronomer Pierre Méchain on March 15, 1781. Méchain is known to have discovered as many as 8 comets and 26 deep sky objects. For example, he discovered comet 8P/Tuttle on January 9, 1790, which remained visible for only a short time, but the astronomer was able to calculate its orbit. He also discovered the spiral galaxy M100 in 1781, which his friend Charles Messier entered into his catalog of galaxies.
In fact, Charles Messier observed Messier 99 a month after Méchain and saw a ‘nebula without a star, of a very strange light, but a little brighter than the previous one. The nebula is located between two stars of magnitude 7 and 8 “ .
The Messier 99 galaxy, one of the largest and brightest galaxies in the Virgo Cluster , has a diameter of about 80,000 light-years. The galaxy contains about 100 billion solar masses, the ESO astronomers explain.
A majestic galaxy on a cosmic scale
What is certain is that this galaxy has an unusual and asymmetrical shape with a displaced nucleus and unequal spiral arms. It is a rare example of a galaxy with a dominant spiral arm.
“Messier 99 is an example of a grand design spiral galaxy, with strong, prominent and well-defined arms that clearly encircle the center of the galaxy,” the ESO astronomers said. “It was imaged in exquisite detail by the MUSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. It is a combination of observations made in different colors or wavelengths of light, showing clouds of gas ionized by newborn stars.
Also cataloged as NGC 4254, a close encounter with another member of the Virgo cluster may have influenced the shape of its sharp blue spiral arms.
“Hydrogen, oxygen and sulfur gas are shown in red, blue and orange respectively. The image was taken as part of the Physics at High Angular Resolution in Nearby Galaxies (PHANGS) project, which conducts high-resolution observations of nearby galaxies at all wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum to understand the life cycle of star formation in the galaxies”, the experts conclude.
Reference: IT
