[M106, Bill Keel] [PNG]

The bright spiral galaxy M106 (NGC 4258) in Ursa Major. This system is distinguished by "anomalous arms", better described perhaps as jets, seen curving outward through the disk in radio emission and optical emission lines. Recent measurements of maser regions near the nucleus suggest a supermassive dark object (a black hole candidate with mass of order 100 million solar masses) at the center of this galaxy. This pseudocolor rendition was made from a V-band CCD frame covering a region 9 arcminutes square, taken with the 1.1-meter Hall telescope of Lowell Observatory. Credit: Bill Keel, University of Alabama.

  • More images from Bill Keel's collection

    [M106 in Blue Light, Univ. Oregon]

    Details in the central region of M106.

    The central part of M106, photographed in the blue light. This central region is of much higher surface brightness than the outlayers of this galaxy. Dust is evident.

    [M106 in IR, Univ. Oregon]

    This is an I-band image (effective wavelength around 8500 Angstroms) of the whole galaxy. The morphology in this image appears much smoother as the old stellar population (more smoothly distributed) dominates the light in this passband.

    Both iamges are from the University of Oregon collection.

  • More images from the University of Oregon collection

    [M106, anonymous source]

    Image of M106 from an anonymous source (perhaps USNO?).

    [M106, AOP/KPNO Visitor Center]
    Hi-res version

    This gorgeous image was taken by Ron and Beth Sharer on February 4, 2000 when participating in the Kitt peak Visitor Center's Advanced Observing Program, using the AOP's Meade 16in LX200 telescope operating at f/6.3 and SBIG ST8E CCD camera with color filter wheel. M106's appearance is dominated by two bright spiral arms and dark dust lanes near the nucleus. Bright newly formed stars near their outer tips distinguish the spiral arms in this photograph, the young star clusters seen as blue patches, the nebulae which still form stars as reddish or pinkish spots. The older population gives the nuclear region a more yellowish appearance.
    Credit: Ron and Beth Sharer/Adam Block/AURA/NOAO/NSF

  • This image was featured as Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) February 15, 2000
  • More images from the Advanced Observer Program

  • Amateur images of M106
  • VLA radio investigations of M106

    Hartmut Frommert (spider@seds.org)
    Christine Kronberg (smil@lrz.uni-muenchen.de)

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    Last Modification: 25 May 1999, 14:00 MET