M106 is a spiral galaxy that is around 30,000 light years across and around 21 million light years away from us. The small companion galaxy, NGC 4248, is about the same distance away.

The bright central core is surrounded by yellow, very old stars. Blue, young star clusters, and reddish stellar nurseries trace the galaxy’s spiral arms. The angle of M106 relative to our view point emphasises the dust lanes within the galaxy structure.

The image was taken as 16x600second exposures on 2 April 2017.