by Messier 99 resides at a distance of about 42 million light-years in the constellation of Coma Berenices.
This galaxy was discovered, together with the neighboring Messier 98 and Messier 100, by the French astronomer Pierre Méchain on March 15, 1781.
Charles Messier observed Messier 99 a month later and saw a ‘nebula without star, of a very rare light, but a little clearer than the previous. The nebula is between two stars of the 7th & 8th magnitude.’
Also known as M99, NGC 4254, IRAS 12162+1441 and LEDA 39578, it has a diameter of around 80,000 light-years.
It contains about 100,000 million solar masses — less than our own Milky Way Galaxy — and belongs to the Virgo Cluster.
Source
This galaxy was discovered, together with the neighboring Messier 98 and Messier 100, by the French astronomer Pierre Méchain on March 15, 1781.
Charles Messier observed Messier 99 a month later and saw a ‘nebula without star, of a very rare light, but a little clearer than the previous. The nebula is between two stars of the 7th & 8th magnitude.’
Also known as M99, NGC 4254, IRAS 12162+1441 and LEDA 39578, it has a diameter of around 80,000 light-years.
It contains about 100,000 million solar masses — less than our own Milky Way Galaxy — and belongs to the Virgo Cluster.
Source
