Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2025 June 27 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. Messier 109 Image Credit & [3]Copyright: [4]Robert Eder Explanation: Big beautiful barred spiral [5]galaxy Messier 109 is the 109th entry in Charles Messier's famous catalog of bright [6]Nebulae and Star Clusters. You can find it just below the Big Dipper's bowl in the northern constellation Ursa Major. In fact, [7]bright dipper star Phecda, Gamma Ursa Majoris, produces the glare at the upper right corner of [8]this telescopic frame. M109's prominent central bar gives the galaxy the appearance of the Greek letter "theta", θ, a common mathematical symbol representing an angle. M109 spans a very small [9]angle in planet Earth's sky though, about 7 arcminutes or 0.12 degrees. But that small [10]angle corresponds to an enormous 120,000 light-year diameter at the galaxy's estimated 60 million light-year distance. The brightest member of the now [11]recognized Ursa Major galaxy cluster, M109 (aka NGC 3992) is joined by [12]spiky foreground stars. Three small, fuzzy bluish galaxies also on the scene, identified (top to bottom) as UGC 6969, UGC 6940 and UGC 6923, are possibly satellite galaxies of the larger barred spiral galaxy Messier 109. Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend __________________________________________________________________ [13]< | [14]Archive | [15]Submissions | [16]Index | [17]Search | [18]Calendar | [19]RSS | [20]Education | [21]About APOD | [22]Discuss | [23]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [24]Robert Nemiroff ([25]MTU) & [26]Jerry Bonnell ([27]UMCP) NASA Official: Amber Straughn [28]Specific rights apply. [29]NASA Web Privacy, [30]Accessibility, [31]Notices; A service of: [32]ASD at [33]NASA / [34]GSFC, [35]NASA Science Activation & [36]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2506/M109_Robert_Eder.jpg 3. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 4. https://www.astrobin.com/users/Robsi/ 5. https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/science/explore-the-night-sky/hubble-messier-catalog/messier-109/ 6. http://messier.seds.org/xtra/history/m-cat.html 7. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110624.html 8. https://app.astrobin.com/u/Robsi?i=albk8c#gallery 9. http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/scale.html 10. http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/scale_distance.html 11. http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9608124 12. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap121013.html 13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250626.html 14. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 17. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 19. https://apod.com/feed.rss 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 22. https://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=250627 23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250628.html 24. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 25. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 26. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 27. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 28. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 29. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 30. https://www.nasa.gov/general/accessibility/ 31. https://www.nasa.gov/privacy/ 32. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 33. https://www.nasa.gov/ 34. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 35. https://science.nasa.gov/learners 36. http://www.mtu.edu/