AAO image reference AAT 62. « Previous || Next »
Top left is NE. Image width is about 10 arc min
Image and text © 1989-2002, Anglo-Australian Observatory, photograph by David Malin.
M66 is a dusty spiral galaxy, and is a member of the same compact group of galaxies as M65 and NGC 3628. The striking symmetry of M65 is lacking, and the central bulge, though large, is less well defined. The spiral arms are very easy to see, but seem distorted and displaced above the plane of the galaxy, probably a result of interactions with its neighbours. Much more dust is visible here as well as a few pink nebulae, signs of star formation, near the end of one of the arms. The green line through the galaxy is the trail of an artificial satellite that crossed the field during the 30 minute exposure of the green-light plate.
Entry from NGC 2000.0 (R.W. Sinnott, Ed.) © Sky Publishing Corporation, 1988:
NGC 3627 Gx 11 20.2 +12 59 s Leo8.79.0 B, vL, mE 150deg , mbM, 2 st np; = M66More data about this galaxy is accessible from the hotlinked NGC name and is reproduced
with permission from the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED).
Related Images
AAT 61. Messier 65 (NGC 3623) spiral galaxy in Leo
AAT 63. Edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 3628 in Leo
AAT 103. The galaxies of the Leo Triplet
For details of photographic exposure, search technical table by AAT reference number.