Messier 66

Messier 66 is a intermediate spiral galaxy. It has a weak bar and a loosely wounded spiral structure. The galaxy has striking dust lanes and bright star clusters along its spiral arms. It also has a well-developed central bulge. The isophotal axis ratio is 0.32, indicating that it is being viewed at an angle. The galaxy has a high rate of star formation occurring in the spiral arms. Its rate of star formation is about 0.05 solar masses per year. These young stars ionize their surrounding environment. Interaction Gravitational interaction from its past encounter with neighboring NGC 3628 has resulted in an extremely high central mass concentration and a high molecular to atomic mass ratio. This also resulted in a resolved non-rotating clump of H I material apparently removed from one of the spiral arms. The latter feature shows up visually as an extremely prominent and unusual spiral arm and dust lane structures as originally noted in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies. ==Supernovae==

Five supernovae have been observed in M66: • SN 1973R (Type II, mag. 14.5) was discovered by Leonida Rosino on 19 December 1973. • SN 1989B (Type Ia, mag. 13) was discovered by Robert Evans on 30 January 1989. • SN 1997bs (type uncertain, mag. 17) was discovered by the Lick Observatory Supernova Search (LOSS) on 15 April 1997. This event was initially classified as a TypeIIn supernova, but later analysis suggests that it is instead either a luminous blue variable, a "gap" transient, or a luminous red nova. • SN 2009hd (Type II, mag. 15.8) was discovered by on 2 July 2009. • SN 2016cok (TypeII-P, mag. 16.6) was discovered by the All Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae on 28 May 2016. ==Gallery==

File:Sig05-016.jpg|alt=A "False Color" Version of Messier 66 by the SST (Spitzer Space Telescope)|Infrared false color view of M66 from the Spitzer Space Telescope File:Infrared_false_color_view_of_M66_from_the_Jamess_Webb_Telescope.jpg|alt=A "False Color" Version of Messier 66 by the James Webb Space Telescope|Infrared false color view of M66 from the James Webb Space Telescope File:Messier 066 2MASS.jpg|Messier 66 by 2MASS File:Messier 66 - NGC 3627 - GALEX.png|An ultraviolet image of Messier 66 by GALEX ==See also==