A "peculiar normal spiral of type Sbp"
in Canes Venatici of magnitude 8.4 (central region) and 28 million light years
distant. M106 has a very bright central region surrounded by
extensive but dim spiral arms.
"In 1995, investigations
with the Very Large Baseline Array radio telescope equipment gave evidence
that M106 is possibly the home of a massive dark object, which could be traced
to the lowest distance from the center ever possible up to now: 36 million solar
masses apparently reside within a volume of about 1/24 to 1/12 light year radius
(27,000 to 54,000 AU). This was then the densest matter concentration ever
detected." (seds.org)
Note the small companion galaxy to right center and galaxy NGC 4248 above right.