Messier 106 is a spiral galaxy located 24 million lightyears away in the constellation Canes Venatici.
M106 - also known as NGC 4258 - spans some 135,000 lightyears across. The galaxy is thought to contain 400 billion stars.
Comet C/2017 passing M106 Vivek Chari, Texas, USA, 24–25 June 2020. Equipment: Nikon D5300 DSLR, Stellarvue SV80 apo refractor, Sky-Watcher EQ6R Pro mount
Observations of M106 with the Hubble Space Telescope have revealed that the galaxy has not one, but two pairs of spiral arms, the extra set consisting of hot cosmic gas, rather than stars.
These extra galactic limbs could be a result of the supermassive black hole at Messier 106's centre perturbing and mixing up in-falling cosmic matter.
M106 and its Neighbours by André van der Hoeven, Wateren, The Netherlands. Equipment: Takahashi FSQ106, NEQ-6, SXV-H9 CCD camera
M106 was discovered by astronomer Pierre Méchain in 1781. Méchain was a colleague of astronomer Charles Messier, who added the galaxy to his famous list of deep-sky objects, the Messier Catalogue.
Images of M106 reveal it is angled slightly edge-on from Earth's perspective, although not as much as galaxies like the Needle Galaxy or NGC 891.
Below is a selection of images of Messier 106 captured by astrophotographers and BBC Sky at Night Magazine readers.
