Sections

Catalogues

Show the direction and distance to this galaxy on the Galactic Map.

Proper Name	Name
Messier Number	M61
NGC/IC Number	NGC 4303
Constellation	Virgo
Right Ascension	12h 21m 55s
Declination	+4° 28' 26"
Distance	c.53,800,000 light years c.16,500,000 parsecs
Magnitude	Apparent: +9.52 Absolute: -21.57
Mean Diameter	Apparent: 6.9' Actual: 108,000 light years
Hubble Type	Sbc spiral (or SABbc intermediate spiral)
Optimum Visibility	April

A spiral galaxy in the constellation Virgo, lying about fifty-four million light years from our own Galaxy. It is part of the Virgo Cluster, and in the skies of Earth it appears as an outlier of that vast group, the southernmost of the major galaxies that make up the cluster.

Imagery provided by Aladin sky atlas

Like the Milky Way, M61 has a supermassive black hole at its core (M61's black hole is about 20% more massive than that at the heart of our own Galaxy). From that nucleus, an intricate spiral form extends and expands outward. M61's alignment relative to Earth means that its entire spiral structure is clearly visible. The M61 galaxy has at least two smaller satellite galaxies: NGC 4303A (NGC 4303 being M61 itself) and NGC 4292.

v2.1g