Messier 105 - Giant Elliptical Galaxy in Leo

Messier 105 (NGC 3379) is a giant elliptical galaxy in the constellation Leo, located at a distance of about 32–38 million light-years. It is one of the dominant members of the Leo I Group and is often observed together with its close companions NGC 3384 and NGC 3389, which form a visually striking and physically related trio. M105 itself is classified as an E1 elliptical galaxy, characterized by a smooth, nearly featureless stellar halo composed primarily of old, metal-rich stars. At its center lies a supermassive black hole with a mass of several hundred million solar masses, making M105 an important benchmark galaxy for studies of black hole–host relations in ellipticals.

Just to the northeast of M105 lies NGC 3384, a lenticular (SB0) galaxy whose flattened disk and subtle bar-like structure contrast strongly with the round symmetry of M105. NGC 3384 shows evidence of a more complex evolutionary history, including faint inner disks and stellar population gradients that suggest past interactions or minor mergers. To the southeast, NGC 3389 appears as a smaller, distorted spiral galaxy whose asymmetric structure and enhanced star formation hint at gravitational interactions within the group environment. Together, these three galaxies provide a compact view of how different galaxy morphologies can coexist and evolve within the same gravitational system.

This image is based on 12 hours of LRGB integration acquired with Telescope Live’s CHI-1-CMOS system.