#m105

A collection of galaxies in Leo, the Lion // Nathanael Martin

Morgana: Who is this man? He seems to have come out of nowhere.

M105 [NGC3379] Elliptical Galaxy In The Leo I Group 

“If you come out, there's a chance your mother will never talk to you again.” “This plan has no downside.”

Days of Messier: M104, the Sombrero Galaxy

Pierre Méchain discovered the Sombrero Galaxy in May of 1781, but Messier chose not to include it in his catalog. William Herschel independently found the galaxy in 1784 and noticed the dark ring around the galaxy. In 1921, French astronomer Camille Flammarion successfully argued that it should be included in the Messier Catalog.

The Sombrero Galaxy lies 31 million light years away and contains an estimated 100 billion stars. It has a diameter of about 100,000 light years. The galaxy’s most prominent feature is the dust lane surround its large central bulge, from which it gets its name.

M105 (upper right) // Drew Evans

M105 was discovered by Méchain in 1781, just a few days after he discovered M95 and M96. However it was not added to Messier's catalog until 1947 when Helen Sawyer Hogg (1905-1993) discovered Méchain's letter with a description of it.

Briefly, Helen Hogg was a American-Canadian astronomer who pioneered research into globular clusters and variable stars. Notably, the was the first female president of several astronomical and scientific organizations, among them the National Science Foundation, the Royal Society of Canada, and the Royal Canadian Institute. She was considered a "great scientist and a gracious person" over a career of sixty years.