M98 - Spiral Galaxy
Messier M98 is a spiral galaxy in the constellation of Coma Berenices, 44.4 million light years from Earth. It sits just above the Markarian's Chain, a group of unrelated galaxies that appear to join in a line in the sky.
It is thought that 750 Million years ago, this galaxy had some interaction with another Messier object M99, now 1.3 million light years from it.
Above M99
Both are members of the Virgo cluster, a group of 1,300 galaxies found on average 54 million light years from us.
Recent Hubble observations give a sight to the large amount of star formation going on here, shown above as blue/purple colours, which extend quite close in towards the centre.
M98 is one of a handful of galaxies that is blue shifted, meaning it's heading towards but that doesn't mean it's going to reach us, as billions of years of gravity nudging and pulling will almost certainly push it elsewhere, and our Sun wouldn't exist even if it was, more so, our galaxy won't exist either, as it will have long merged with Andromeda and become a much larger influence in this local neighbourhood of galaxies.
