M61 (NGC 4303) — Sbc in Virgo
Sbc in Virgo, 6.9 arcminutes across, its light 75 million years old. Measured by HyperLEDA, photographed by Pan-STARRS1. Recorded once.
About M61 (NGC 4303)
Messier 61 is one of the largest galaxies in the Virgo Cluster and one of the most productive at making supernovae: several have been recorded in it, more than in most galaxies. Its face-on arms are lined with clusters of new stars.
What you are looking at
M61 is a spiral of the same broad class astronomers give the Milky Way: a moderate bulge and clearly drawn arms. It faces us almost squarely, which shows its full structure at once. From edge to edge its visible disc spans about 150,000 light-years, about 1.5 times the width of the Milky Way.
What astronomers have recorded
SIMBAD, the reference database astronomers use, classes it as a Seyfert galaxy: its nucleus is lit by gas falling into its central black hole, though dust hides part of that glow from us. Eight supernovae have been recorded in it, the first in 1926; the most recent include SN 2008in, SN 2014dt, SN 2020jfo. It is cited in 1,105 scientific papers indexed by SIMBAD, and recorded there under 39 different catalogue designations.
When this light set out
What a telescope records of M61 is light that left it about 75 million years ago; on Earth, dinosaurs were at their peak. The galaxy is moving away from us at about 1,567 km/s (3.5 million mph), carried by the expansion of the universe.
Finding it in the sky
In the sky, M61 sits within the constellation Virgo. It is best placed on spring evenings: around 9:30 pm in May it stands about 54° high in the south, seen from the middle of the United States.
Its neighbours
At almost the same distance from us, and so its neighbours in space as well as on the sky: NGC 4303A (0.2° away on the sky, at least 210,000 light-years from it); UGC 7387 (0.5° away on the sky, at least 640,000 light-years from it); UGC 7422 (0.6° away on the sky, at least 820,000 light-years from it); NGC 4324 (0.8° away on the sky, at least 1,090,000 light-years from it), and 10 more.
By apparent size it is number 50 of the 12,657 galaxies on the Galaxy Origins register.
Measurements
| Catalogue | PGC 40001 |
|---|---|
| Morphological type | Sbc |
| Angular diameter | 6.89′ |
| Right ascension | 12h21m54.8s |
| Declination | +04°28′25.6″ |
| Constellation | Virgo |
| Inclination | 18.1° |
| Light travel time | 75 million years |
| Bar | yes, from the catalogue |
Check every figure above in the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database
What is sold
A print of this galaxy and the record of the calculation, once. When it sells it leaves the register and is not offered again. We assign no names and no ownership — nobody can sell you those.
At 6.9 arcminutes this is a Exceptional galaxy, which is the tier where a real photograph shows clear structure and dust lanes. The tier comes from the measured diameter, not from a price list.
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