M65 - Intermediate Spiral Galaxy in Leo Triplet

Messier 65 (NGC 3623) is an intermediate spiral galaxy of type SAB(rs)a (or SAB(rs)0/a) located in the constellation Leo, approximately 41–42 million light-years from Earth. The galaxy spans roughly 8.7′ × 2.45′, corresponding to a physical diameter of around 113,500 light-years. It forms one corner of the well-known Leo Triplet (with M66 and NGC 3628) and shows subtle signs of past interaction: although it appears the least disturbed of the trio, its disk is slightly warped and contains low levels of gas and dust, yielding a relatively low star-formation rate compared to typical spirals.

Discovered by Charles Messier in 1780, it was cataloged in his famous Messier Catalogue and later studied in much greater detail — revealing a ring around the bright central bulge, tightly wound spiral structure, and a clear dust lane along the near edge of the disk.

Image captured with Telescope Live’s older CHI-1-CCD system over 6h 40m of LRGB integration.

Sources:

wikipedia.org

messier-objects.com

science.nasa.gov

deepskycorner.ch

Data credit: Telescope.Live