M74

A stunning face-on spiral galaxy, M74 was discovered in 1780 by Charles Messier’s observing assistant, the French astronomer Pierre Méchain. M74 is located roughly 32 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Pisces. With an apparent magnitude of only 10, the galaxy appears as a faint patch of light through small telescopes. It is best observed during November.

M74 is a perfect example of a grand-design spiral galaxy. Symmetrical spiral arms reach out from the galaxy’s central nucleus and are traced by winding dust lanes. The arms are dotted with clusters of young, blue stars and pink regions where the ultraviolet light from these young stars has ionized clouds of hydrogen and caused them to glow.

This Hubble image of M74 is a composite of exposures taken in 2003 and 2005 at visible and infrared wavelengths. A small segment of this image used data from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope and the Gemini Observatory to fill in a region that Hubble did not observe.

Credits: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration; Acknowledgment: R. Chandar (University of Toledo) and J. Miller (University of Michigan)