Messier 105

Messier 105 (M105) is a large elliptical galaxy—a generally featureless blob with a mass of 100 million suns. Kanipe, Annals of the Deep Sky, vol. 12, 234 (2025). It’s located in the Leo Constellation about 36 million light years away and is part of the M96 Group of galaxies.

Recent studies have found that it contains a supermassive black hole with a mass of around 200 million suns. Although unusual for elliptical galaxies, which are usually considered “dead” because they are no longer forming many new stars, M105 contains a large number of young stars and star clusters.

M105 seemingly has a couple of companion galaxies—NGC 3384 (at four o’clock) and NGC 3389 (at two o’clock). Separated by only a few hundred thousand light years, NGC 3384 and M105 are relatively close to each other.

NGC 3384 shows characteristics of both elliptical and spiral galaxies. Although it looks like a diffuse blob of billions of stars, it also contains a spiral structure.

The other seeming companion, the blue spiral galaxy NGC 3389, is nowhere near the other two. It lies much farther away at a distance of approximately 80 million light years.

I shot this image in a very short time on my very first ever dark-sky trip at Big Bend Ranch State Park in November 2020. Although not a definitive image of this trio of galaxies, I still find it quite passable given the state of my skills at the time.