#messier 105

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A collection of galaxies in Leo, the Lion // Nathanael Martin

From right to left: M95, M96, M105, NGC 3384, NGC 3389.

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Ellipse’s Supermassive Black Hole

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M105 (right), NGC 3384 (upper left), and NGC 3389 (lower left) // Wei-Hao Wang

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M105 (NGC 3379, top), NGC 3384 (center), and NGC 3389 (right) // Abdul Thomas Jnr & blackrig

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M105 (upper right) // Drew Evans

M105 was discovered by Méchain in 1781, just a few days after he discovered M95 and M96. However it was not added to Messier's catalog until 1947 when Helen Sawyer Hogg (1905-1993) discovered Méchain's letter with a description of it.

Briefly, Helen Hogg was a American-Canadian astronomer who pioneered research into globular clusters and variable stars. Notably, the was the first female president of several astronomical and scientific organizations, among them the National Science Foundation, the Royal Society of Canada, and the Royal Canadian Institute. She was considered a "great scientist and a gracious person" over a career of sixty years.

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A trio of galaxies: M105 (right), NGC 3384 (upper left), and NGC 3389 (lower left) // AnaTa

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M105 (right) // Nik Szymanek

M105 is a member of the same galaxy group that contains M95, M96, and at least 21 fainter members. One of those fainter members is NGC 3384, the lenticular galaxy seen to the left of M105 in this image. The other galaxy, NGC 3389 at the bottom left, likely lies in the background.

M105 and its companion NGC 3384 are surrounded by a ring of neutral hydrogen gas with a bit of star-formation happening inside the ring. There's even some low level of star formation happening in M105, although at a rate of one Sun-like star every 10,000 years. Compare that to the Milky Way's rate of one per year!

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M105 (center), NGC 3384 (upper right), and NGC 3389 (upper right) // Dionysus