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M106, Spiral Galaxy in Canes Venatici

A tilted galaxy against the black background of space. It has red and blue spiral arms stretching clockwise around its bright yellow-white core.
This multiframe, mosaic, wide-field image of M106 was created as an experiment in using the Hubble Legacy Archive as a clearing house for Hubble Space Telescope data of the galaxy. WFC3, ACS, and WFPC2 Hubble data of the nucleus and inner spiral arms were combined with ground-based red-green-blue images of M106 taken by astrophotographers Robert Gendler and Jay GaBany. Their 12.5-inch and 20-inch telescopes are located at very dark, remote sites in New Mexico. The Hubble Legacy Archive provides public access to Hubble data. Gendler processed the Hubble and ground-based images into this stunning view of the galaxy. The image is also being released at Gendler's astro imaging website at: http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/M106-HST.html .

About the Object

  • R.A. Position
    R.A. PositionRight ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position.
    12h 18m 57.49s
  • Dec. Position
    Dec. PositionDeclination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position.
    47° 18' 14.29"
  • Constellation
    ConstellationOne of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears.
    Canes Venatici
  • Distance
    DistanceThe physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs.
    23.5 million light-years (7,000,000 parsecs)

About the Data

  • Data Description
    Data DescriptionProposal: A description of the observations, their scientific justification, and the links to the data available in the science archive.
    Science Team: The astronomers who planned the observations and analyzed the data. "PI" refers to the Principal Investigator.
    Note: Ground-based image data provided by R. Gendler and J. GaBany was used to fill in or supplement areas where HST data did not exist or was limited. The image was created from Hubble data from proposal 11570: A. Riess (STScI) and collaborators. Other ACS and WFPC2 datasets from various other proposals were used to augment this proposal's data.
  • Instrument
    InstrumentThe science instrument used to produce the data.
    HST>ACS/WFC, HST>WFPC2, HST>WFC3/UVIS and Ground-based
  • Filters
    FiltersThe camera filters that were used in the science observations.
    ACS/WFC: F435W (G), F555W (V), F606W (V), and F814W (I) WFPC2: F656N (H-alpha) WFC3/UVIS: F555W (V) and F814W (I) ACS/WFC: F814W (I) Ground-based: 656nm (H-alpha)
  • Object Name
    Object NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.
    M106, NGC 4258
  • Object Description
    Object DescriptionThe type of astronomical object.
    Spiral galaxy
  • Release Date
    February 5, 2013
  • Science Release
    Amateur and Professional Astronomers Team Up to Create a Cosmological Masterpiece
    Read the release
  • Credit
    R. Gendler; Acknowledgment: J. GaBany

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A tilted galaxy against the black background of space. It has red and blue spiral arms stretching clockwise around its bright yellow-white core.
Color Info
Color InfoA brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented.

This image is a composite of separate exposures acquired by various Hubble instruments and ground-based telescopes. Several filters were used to sample various wavelengths/frequencies. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are: Blue: ACS/WFC F435W (G) Green: WFC3/UVIS F555W (V) + ACS/WFC F555W (V) + ACS/WFC F606W (V) Red: Ground-based 656nm (H-alpha) + WFPC2 F656N (H-alpha) + ACS/WFC F814W (I) + WFC3/UVIS F814W (I) Luminosity: ACS/WFC F814W (I)

Related Images & Videos

A galaxy with red and blue spiral arms stretching clockwise around its bright yellow-white core.

Galaxy M106

Working with astronomical image processors at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md., renowned astrophotographer Robert Gendler has taken science data from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) archive and combined it with his own ground-based observations to...

Image titled “NGC 4258 M106, Hubble Space Telescope with ground-based images from Robert Gendler and Jay GaBany” with compass arrows, scale bar, and color key.

Compass and Scale Image of M106

M106 Zoom Sequence (Annotated)

M106 Zoom Sequence (Annotated)

This is a video zoom sequence into spiral galaxy M106 in Canes Venatici.

M106 Zoom Sequence

M106 Zoom Sequence

This is a video zoom sequence into spiral galaxy M106 in Canes Venatici.

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Details

Last Updated
Mar 14, 2025
Contact
Media

Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov

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