Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Messier 77 - a galaxy in Cetus

Messier 77
Messier 77, a spiral galaxy in Cetus. Click to enlarge. About 30 minutes exposure.

This galaxy is about 50 million light-years away. At the core of M77 is a well-studied massive and active black hole of at least 100 million solar masses.

1 comment:

NiteSkyGirl said...

BEAUTIFUL !! I've seen this deep sky object in my 8 inch telescope, looking forward to viewing it again in the summer with my new 12 inch Orion Skyquest.