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Messier 109

Adapted from Wikipedia · Discoverer experience

A beautiful barred spiral galaxy called Messier 109, showing its smooth blue arms and yellow center from space.

Messier 109, also called NGC 3992 or the Vacuum Cleaner Galaxy, is a beautiful barred spiral galaxy. It is located about 67.2 million light-years away in the northern constellation Ursa Major. This galaxy has a weak inner ring structure around its central bar, making it quite interesting for astronomers to study.

You can find Messier 109 southeast of the star Phecda, which is also known as Gamma Ursa Majoris. Observing this galaxy helps us learn more about the structure and evolution of galaxies like our own Milky Way.

History

Messier 109 was found by Pierre Méchain in 1781. Two years later, Charles Messier added it to his list of special objects.

For a time, objects added after the 103rd were not always considered part of the main list. But later, these extra objects were accepted. By the late 1970s, all 110 objects were commonly used by astronomers, and this is still true today.

General information

This galaxy is the farthest object in the Messier Catalog, after M91.

M109 has three satellite galaxies and maybe more. It is the brightest galaxy in the M109 Group, a large group of galaxies in the constellation Ursa Major.

Supernova

One bright explosion, called a supernova, has been seen in M109. It happened in 1956 and was found by an astronomer using a big telescope at the Palomar Observatory. This kind of explosion happens when a star reaches the end of its life and shines very brightly for a short time.

Images

The Crab Nebula: A beautiful cosmic cloud formed from the remnants of a star that exploded long ago.
A stunning view of the barred spiral galaxy M109, located in the constellation Ursa Major.
A beautiful view of the galaxy Messier 109 captured with an amateur telescope.
A stunning view of the core of the spiral galaxy M109, captured by the Hubble Space Telescope.
A map showing the location of the galaxy Messier 109 in space, marked with a blue circle.
A stunning view of Earth rising over the lunar horizon, as seen by astronauts aboard Apollo 8 during their historic mission.
Portrait of Charles Messier, the famous astronomer who cataloged numerous celestial objects.
An artist's depiction of HE 1523-0901, one of the oldest known stars in our galaxy, located about 7,500 light-years from Earth.

Related articles

Constellation
Ursa Major
Barred spiral galaxy
Supernova

This article is a child-friendly adaptation of the Wikipedia article on Messier 109, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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