Celestial Objects

Messier 99

Galaxies

Citation Formats

General Reference

Space and Astronomy Atlas. "Messier 99." Accessed September 2, 2026. https://dev-space.interactiveatlas.org/celestial-objects/messier-99.

APA Style

Space and Astronomy Atlas. (n.d.). Messier 99. Retrieved September 2, 2026, from https://dev-space.interactiveatlas.org/celestial-objects/messier-99

BibTeX

@misc{spaceandastronomyatlas-messier-99,
  author = {Space and Astronomy Atlas},
  title = {Messier 99},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://dev-space.interactiveatlas.org/celestial-objects/messier-99},
  note = {Accessed September 2, 2026}
}

Messier 99, also known as M99, the Coma Pinwheel or NGC 4254, is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Coma Berenices and a member of the Virgo Cluster, discovered by Pierre Mechain in 1781. It lies roughly 50 to 56 million light-years from Earth and displays a notably asymmetric, grand-design spiral structure, with one arm more extended than the other, an effect attributed to gravitational interaction with a neighboring galaxy.

Comments (0)

No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.

Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)

No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.

View At A Past Year

The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.

Switch Atlas

The Inner World

The Civil World

The Natural World