M96

spiral galaxy · the Leo I group · in Leo

34.1 million light-years from Earth

With M105, one of the two brightest galaxies of the Leo I group. Its arms are weak, lopsided and dusty, and a bar sits inside a bar at its centre. In 1998 a supernova flared in it, one of the nearest of its kind in modern times, and it helped measure how fast the universe expands.

• 34.1 million light-years · about 82,000 light-years across
• its black hole weighs about 7.5 million Suns

kind

galaxy

catalogue

M96 · NGC 3368

size

82,500 light-years across