Messier 106 (also known as NGC 4258) is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici (hunting dogs) and was discovered in 1781 by Pierre Méchain. M106 is approximately 22 to 25 million light years from Earth and contains an active core classified as Type 2 Seyfert, indicating the presence of a central supermassive black hole. The central supermassive black hole was detected by radio wavelength observations of the rotation of a molecular gas disk orbiting the black hole within the inner light year. NGC 4217 (shown in the widefield image at the bottom of the photo) is a possible companion galaxy of Messier 106.

On relatively deep exposures, as in this picture, not only the larger accompanying galaxies of Messier 106 come to light, but also hundreds of other, extremely distant and faint galaxies, whose distance to Earth already amounts to billions of light years.