M109 - Barred Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major

Messier 109 (NGC 3992) is a striking barred spiral galaxy located in the constellation Ursa Major, at a distance of about 60 million light-years. Messier 109 was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781. Two years later Charles Messier catalogued the object, as an appended object to his publication. With an apparent magnitude around 9.8 and dimensions of ~7.6’ × 4.7’, it is the brightest member of the M109 Group, a loose cluster of some ~50 or more galaxies in the Ursa Major Virgo supercluster filament. M109 is sometimes called the “Vacuum Cleaner Galaxy” due to its strong central bar that is believed to funnel gas inward. It contains a “hole” in the HI gas distribution in its bar region - likely from gas being transported into the center. This galaxy is the most distant object in the Messier Catalog, followed by M91. M109 has three satellite galaxies (UGC 6923, UGC 6940 and UGC 6969) and possibly more.

This image was obtained using Telescope Live’s SPA-2-CCD system - a 700 mm Officina Stellare RC telescope located in Spain.

Sources:

wikipedia.org

science.nasa.gov

www.messier-objects.com

deepskycorner.ch

Data credit: Telescope.Live