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Messier 66 is a spiral galaxy located in the constellation Leo that can be observed from Earth. It is significant to astronomers as one of the notable galaxies catalogued by Charles Messier in the 18th century and serves as an important object for studying galactic structure and behavior.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Key facts
- Constellation
- Leo
- Right ascension
- 11 20 15.026
- Declination
- +12 ° 59 ′ 28.64 ″
- Redshift
- 0.002 425 ± 0.000 010 ( 696.3 ± 12.7 km/s )
- Distance
- 31 Mly (9.6 Mpc )
- Type
- SAB(s)b
- Size
- 85,200 ly (26.12 kpc ) (estimated)
- Apparent size v
- 9.1 ′ × 4.2 ′
- Notable features
- Galaxy in the Leo Triplet
via Wikipedia infobox
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Encyclopedic overview
Messier 66 or M66, also known as NGC 3627, is an intermediate spiral galaxy located around 31 million light years from Earth in the equatorial half of the Leo constellation. This galaxy is a member of the Leo Triplet (M66 group), a small group of galaxies that includes M65 and NGC 3628. M66 has a morphological classification of SABb, indicating that is has a spiral shape with a weak bar feature and loosely wound arms.
It was discovered by French astronomer Charles Messier on 1 March 1780, who described it as "very long and very faint". Messier 65 and Messier 66 are a common object for amateur astronomic observation, being separated by only 20′.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Messier 66” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.