                         Astronomy Picture of the Day

                         Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our
 fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a
                           professional astronomer.

                                2019 March 17
                                      [2]
                 M106: A Spiral Galaxy with a Strange Center
  Image Credit: NASA [3] , ESO [4]  , NAOJ [5] , Giovanni Paglioli; Assembling
             and Processing: R. Colombari [6]  and R. Gendler [7]

Explanation: What's happening at the center of spiral galaxy M106? A swirling
disk of stars and gas, M106 [8] 's appearance is dominated by blue spiral arms
and red dust [9]  lanes near the nucleus, as shown in the featured image [10]
. The core of M106 [11]  glows brightly in radio waves [12]  and X-rays [13]
where twin jets have been found [14]  running the length of the galaxy. An
unusual central glow makes M106 [15]  one of the closest examples of the
Seyfert class of galaxies [16] , where vast amounts of glowing gas are thought
to be falling into a central massive black hole [17] . M [18] 106, also
designated NGC [19]  4258, is a relatively close 23.5 million light years
away, spans 60 thousand light years [20]  across, and can be seen with a small
telescope towards the constellation [21]  of the Hunting Dogs ( Canes Venatici
[22] ).

  Astrophysicists: Browse 1,900+ codes in the Astrophysics Source Code Library
                                    [23]
                     Tomorrow's picture: orange sky horse

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    Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [35] (MTU [36] ) & Jerry Bonnell [37]
                                  (UMCP [38] )
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Site notes:
  [1] archivepix.html
  [2] image/1903/m106_colombari_3568.jpg
  [3] https://hla.stsci.edu/
  [4] https://www.eso.org/
  [5] https://www.naoj.org/
  [6] http://www.astrobin.com/users/rob77/
  [7] http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/
  [8]  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_106
  [9]
http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.astro.41.011802.094840
  [10] http://www.astrobin.com/154455/0/
  [11] ap131003.html
  [12] https://science.nasa.gov/ems/05_radiowaves
  [13] http://chandra.harvard.edu/learn_light.html
  [14] http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1995ApJ...440..181C
  [15] ap140705.html
  [16] http://www.seyfertgalaxies.com/
  [17] http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/ask_astro/black_holes.html
  [18] http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/messier.html
  [19] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_General_Catalogue
  [20] http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/cosmic_distance.html
  [21]
http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/extra/constellations.html
  [22]
http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/constellations/
Canes_Venatici.html
  [23] http://ascl.net/
  [24] ap190316.html
  [25] archivepix.html
  [26] lib/apsubmit2015.html
  [27] lib/aptree.html
  [28] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  [29] calendar/allyears.html
  [30] /apod.rss
  [31] lib/edlinks.html
  [32] lib/about_apod.html
  [33] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=190317
  [34] ap190318.html
  [35] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  [36] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  [37] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  [38] http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  [39] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [40] https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  [41] https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  [42] https://www.nasa.gov/
  [43] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  [44] http://www.mtu.edu/
