Messier 106

Messier 106 is a spiral galaxy in Canes Venatici, about 23 million light-years from Earth. Its active nucleus drives prominent radio-emitting jets and unusually strong water-vapor masers.

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Seyfert galaxy: A galaxy whose bright nucleus emits intense radiation from accretion onto a central supermassive black hole. Messier 106 is classified as a Seyfert galaxy because its nucleus shows strong activity.
Anomalous arms: Radio- and X-ray-bright structures in Messier 106 that cross its visible spiral arms. These arms mark paths where nuclear outflows interact with the galaxy’s disk gas.
Megamaser: An exceptionally luminous astrophysical maser whose emission is amplified across large regions of a galaxy. Messier 106’s water emission is unusually powerful and belongs to the extragalactic megamaser phenomenon.
Pierre Méchain: A French astronomer who discovered many nebulae later included in Charles Messier’s catalog. Méchain discovered the object later designated Messier 106 in 1781.
Supermassive black hole: A black hole with a mass millions to billions of times that of the Sun. Accretion onto Messier 106’s central black hole powers its active nucleus.
Circinus Galaxy: A nearby spiral galaxy with an obscured active nucleus and prominent ionized gas outflows. It offers a nearby comparison for how an active nucleus reshapes a spiral galaxy.
Geometric distance measurement: A distance determination based on directly measured geometry rather than inferred brightness or expansion models. Maser positions and motions in Messier 106’s disk provide a geometric distance estimate.
Charles Messier: A French astronomer who compiled a catalog of nebulae and star clusters that could be mistaken for comets. Messier added the galaxy to his catalog after Méchain’s discovery.
Active galactic nucleus: A galaxy’s compact, exceptionally luminous central region powered by matter falling toward a supermassive black hole. Messier 106’s nucleus produces radiation and outflows that shape its inner galaxy.
NGC 4258 water maser disk: A compact, warped disk of water-maser-emitting gas orbiting the central black hole in NGC 4258. The maser spots in this disk enabled a precise distance measurement to Messier 106.