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Messier 95

Adapted from Wikipedia · Discoverer experience

A stunning view of the galaxy Messier 95, showing its beautiful spiral arms and bright core, captured by the Very Large Telescope.

Messier 95, also known as M95 or NGC 3351, is a barred spiral galaxy located about 33 million light-years away in the constellation Leo. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781 and later catalogued by Charles Messier. In 2012, astronomers found its most recent supernova.

This galaxy is classified as SB(r)b, meaning it has a bar shape with spiral arms that are neither too tightly wound nor too loose, and it features an inner ring surrounding the bar. This ring is a region where new stars are forming and stretches about 70,000 light-years across.

M95 is part of the M96 Group, a collection of galaxies in Leo that includes other Messier objects such as M96 and M105. The galaxy shows active star formation in several regions, with clusters of young stars that might one day become globular clusters.

Supernova

One bright explosion, called a supernova, was seen in M95. It happened on March 16, 2012, and was named SN 2012aw. This type of supernova happens when a big star runs out of energy and collapses. Scientists studied its light and learned more about how these stars behave.

Images

A stunning view of the Crab Nebula, the remnants of a star that exploded long ago, captured by the Hubble Space Telescope.
A stunning view of the spiral galaxy NGC 3351, showing its bright center and swirling arms filled with stars and cosmic dust, captured by the James Webb Space Telescope.
A stunning view of Earth rising over the lunar horizon as seen by astronauts aboard the Apollo 8 spacecraft.
Portrait of Charles Messier, an 18th-century French astronomer known for compiling the Messier Catalogue of astronomical objects.
An artist's depiction of HE 1523-0901, one of the oldest known stars in our galaxy, located about 7,500 light-years from Earth.

Related articles

Supernova
Barred spiral galaxy
Constellation

This article is a child-friendly adaptation of the Wikipedia article on Messier 95, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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