Close to the Great Bear (Ursa Major) constellation lies a galaxy called M106 discovered in 1781 by the French astronomer Pierre Mechain. Over two centuries later, powerful telescopes and cameras manage to capture the galaxy in all its glory.

Astronomers calculate it is 30,000 light years across. This means that even travelling at the speed of light (over one billion kilometres per hour), it takes 30,000 years to travel from one end of this galaxy to the other.

It is relatively close to our own galaxy, the Milky Way, at only 21 million light years and is located in the constellation Canes Venatici (the Hunting Dogs). This makes it practically a neighbour, by cosmic standards!

Galaxies are immense collections of stars. The Milky Way, for example, is thought to contain over 300 billion stars, one of which being the sun, our own star. The unusually bright glow in the centre of galaxy M106 hides a secret, as it is one of the so-called ‘Seyfert class’ galaxies.

These are galaxies suspected of having bright cores due to matter falling into a super massive black hole. As gas spirals towards the black hole, it heats up and emits powerful radiation.

Elsewhere in the night sky this month, Jupiter sets nearly three hours after sunset but it is now well past its best and fading and it will no longer be visible after mid-July. It is visible low in the west, right after sunset. Binoculars will allow its four largest moons to be seen.

Saturn shines brightly in the southern sky and any telescope should be able to reveal its magni-ficent ring system. Mars can be spotted in the southwest after sunset and Venus shines brightly in the east just before dawn.

The small planet Mercury was easily visible last month; however, in June it will appear too close to the sun to be safely observed.

Post your images of the night sky on the Society’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/groups/maltastro.

Astronomical events in June

Alexei Pace is president of the Astronomical Society of Malta.