Celestial Objects

Messier 66

Galaxies

Citation Formats

General Reference

Space and Astronomy Atlas. "Messier 66." Accessed September 2, 2026. https://dev-space.interactiveatlas.org/celestial-objects/messier-66.

APA Style

Space and Astronomy Atlas. (n.d.). Messier 66. Retrieved September 2, 2026, from https://dev-space.interactiveatlas.org/celestial-objects/messier-66

BibTeX

@misc{spaceandastronomyatlas-messier-66,
  author = {Space and Astronomy Atlas},
  title = {Messier 66},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://dev-space.interactiveatlas.org/celestial-objects/messier-66},
  note = {Accessed September 2, 2026}
}

Messier 66, also known as M66 or NGC 3627, is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Leo, discovered by Pierre Mechain in 1780. It is the brightest member of the Leo Triplet, which it forms together with Messier 65 and NGC 3628, lies roughly 31 million light-years from Earth, and shows a distorted spiral structure with an offset core and asymmetric arms attributed to gravitational interaction with its Triplet companions.

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