Messier 100 (also known as NGC 4321 or the Mirror Galaxy) is a grand design intermediate spiral galaxy in the southern part of the mildly northern Coma Berenices. It is one of the brightest and largest galaxies in the Virgo Cluster and is approximately 55 million light-years from our galaxy, its diameter being 107,000 light years, and being about 60% as large. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781 and 29 days later seen again and entered by Charles Messier in his catalogue "of nebulae and star clusters". It was one of the first spiral galaxies to be discovered, and was listed as one of fourteen spiral nebulae by Lord William Parsons of Rosse in 1850. NGC 4323 and NGC 4328 are satellite galaxies of M100; the former is connected with it by a bridge of luminous matter.

Early observations

After the discovery of M100 by Méchain, Charles Messier made observations of the galaxy depicting it as a nebula without a star. He pointed out that it was difficult to recognize the nebula because of its faintness. William Herschel was able to identify a bright cluster of stars within the "nebula" during his observations. His son John expanded the findings in 1833. With the advent of better telescopes, John Herschel was able to see a round, brighter galaxy; however, he also mentioned that it was barely visible through clouds. William Henry Smyth extended the studies of M100, detailing it as a pearly white nebula and pointing out diffuse spots.

Star formation

Messier 100 is considered a starburst galaxy with the strongest star formation activity concentrated in its center, within a ring – actually two tightly wound spiral arms attached to a small nuclear bar of radius: one thousand parsecs – where star formation has been taking place for at least 500 million years in separate bursts. As usual on spiral galaxies of the Virgo Cluster, in the rest of the disk both star formation and neutral hydrogen, of which M100 is deficient compared to isolated spiral galaxies of similar Hubble type, are truncated within the galaxy's disk, which is caused by interactions with the intracluster medium of Virgo.

Supernovae

Seven supernovae have been identified in M100.

References and footnotes