M95 is a member of the Leo I galaxy group, which includes M96, M105, and a number of other galaxies, spread across a region about 40 million light years away. M96 has two ringlike structures (emphasized in the second and third images, below), one surrounding the inner half of the galaxy, which may just be an odd arrangement of the outer spiral arms as they wind toward the ends of the bar, and a much smaller one near the very center, which involves several bright regions enveloped in clouds of gas and dust and suggests a recent episode of intense star formation.

About 1.7 by 0.8 arcmin wide

M96 is a member of the Leo I galaxy group, which includes M95, M105, and a number of other galaxies, spread across a region about 40 million light years away. One interesting feature of the region is a huge ring of cold gas which surrounds most of the galaxies in the group. A 2010 study of the ring with the CFHT telescope reveals its (very faint) visible structure, and in combination with computer modeling, indicates that the ring consists of material blown out of M96 and NGC 3384 in a direct collision between the two galaxies, about a billion years ago. During that time the two galaxies have moved nearly 40 million light years apart, so their connection to each other (and the gas ring) was not at all obvious, and it had been speculated that the gas was "primordial gas", left over from the formation of the Universe, which had never been inside any galaxy. As a result of the study, the search for such gas continues (none having been found anywhere, to date).

     The Carina Nebula, a star forming region 300 light years across, and 7500 light years away, is a huge complex of glowing gas, and clusters of stars formed from that gas, embedded within the southern Milky Way. The full-field views below show the nebula as an irregularly circular cloud, separated by a very dark V-shaped pair of dust lanes. The portion above the V is much brighter than the rest of the nebula, and in shorter exposures, appears as a roughly triangular region, surrounded by the dark clouds of dust which divide it from the rest of the nebula. Near its lower apex, an exceptionally bright region is lit by the energetic radiation of η Carinae, one of the brightest, most massive stars in our galaxy. An irregularly shaped lane of dark dust which crosses the region lit by η Car is referred to as the Keyhole Nebula. In fact, the entire nebula was once referred to as the Keyhole Nebula because of this feature, and it is not unusual to see images of minute portions of the nebula labeled as the Keyhole, even though they have no relationship to the "original".
     Since there are so many clouds, pillars, dust lanes, star clusters, and other features scattered throughout the region, a page devoted to a multitude of NGC objects is not the appropriate place to discuss their myriad details. For that reason, a separate page, The Carina Nebula, discusses the nebula and its contents in detail, while this section only shows three full- or nearly-full nebular views, and one detail image, to clarify the location of η Car and the Keyhole.

M105 is a member of the Leo I galaxy group, which includes M95, M96, and a number of other galaxies, spread across a region about 40 million light years away.

1.9 by 1.1 arcmin