Astr110 Photography Projects, Spring 2005

M65, Ellen Arrowsmith

M65 is a beautiful, yellow-orange spiral galaxy. M65, M66 and NGC 2638 together form the Leo Triplet, which is located in the Leo constellation. The center of M65 consists primarily of a bright center composed of an "old stellar population." New stars are forming in the dust ring surrounding the galaxy center. The dark line, called "the lane" is a line of dust blocking the light behind. The lane helps to give a 3-D perspective to the galaxy disk.

M65 is also known as "Messier Object 65" because it was first observed by Charles Messier on March 1, 1780. Messier described it as a "very faint nebula without stars." M65 is 35 million light years away from earth, its linear size is 71000 light years, and its angular size is 7 arcminutes.

References:

M65
Spiral Galaxy M65