The M101 Group is a loose group of galaxies located in the constellation

Ursa Major Ursa Major, also known as the Great Bear, is a constellation in the Northern Sky, whose associated mythology likely dates back into prehistory. Its Latin name means "greater (or larger) bear", referring to and contrasting it with nearby Ursa M ...

. The group is named after the brightest galaxy in the group, the

Pinwheel Galaxy The Pinwheel Galaxy (also known as Messier 101, M101 or NGC 5457) is a face-on, counterclockwise intermediate spiral galaxy located from Earth in the constellation Ursa Major. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781 and was communicated ...

(M101). Most of the other members of the group are companions of the Pinwheel Galaxy. The group itself is one of many located within the

Virgo Supercluster The Local Supercluster (LSC or LS), or Virgo Supercluster is a formerly defined supercluster containing the Virgo Cluster and Local Group, which itself contains the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies, as well as others. At least 100 galaxy group ...

(i.e. the Local Supercluster).

Members

The table below lists galaxies that have been consistently identified as group members in the Nearby Galaxies Catalog, the survey of Fouque et al., the Lyons Groups of Galaxies (LGG) Catalog, and the three group lists created from the Nearby Optical Galaxy sample of Giuricin et al. Other possible members galaxies (galaxies listed in only one or two of the lists from the above references) include the

irregular galaxies An irregular galaxy is a galaxy that does not have a distinct regular shape, unlike a spiral or an elliptical galaxy. Irregular galaxies do not fall into any of the regular classes of the Hubble sequence, and they are often chaotic in appearance ...

NGC 5238 and UGC 8508.

Nearby groups

The M51 Group, which includes the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) and the Sunflower Galaxy (M63), is located to the southeast of the M101 Group, and the NGC 5866 Group is located to the northwest. The distances to these three groups (as determined from the distances to the individual member galaxies) are similar, which suggests that the M51 Group, the M101 Group, and the NGC 5866 Group are actually part of a single large, loose, elongated group. However, most group identification methods (including those used by the references cited above) identify these three groups as separate entities.

References

{{Reflist Virgo Supercluster Ursa Major

Members

Nearby groups

See also

References