Messier 61

Messier 61 is a spiral galaxy located approximately 52.5 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo. Its coordinates in the sky are right ascension 185.479° and declination 4.474°, and it is catalogued in the Messier.

The light reaching Earth from Messier 61 today left the galaxy roughly 52.5 million years ago. What you see in telescope imagery is a snapshot of the galaxy as it appeared before most of Earth’s mammalian history.

Through the Galactic Registry, you can symbolically dedicate Messier 61 in a name, memory, or message of your choosing. Your dedication is filed permanently in our public registry and printed on an archival 12″×18″ cotton-stock certificate, shipped worldwide. This is not an official IAU renaming — only the International Astronomical Union can officially name celestial bodies — but it is a permanent symbolic act tied to a galaxy that demonstrably exists, can be pointed at from any observatory on Earth, and has been imaged by NASA, ESA, or a ground-based telescope.