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Messier 58 (also known as M58 and NGC 4579) is an intermediate barred spiral galaxy with a weak inner ring structure located within the constellation Virgo, approximately 68 million light-years away from Earth. It was discovered by Charles Messier on April 15, 1779 and is one of four barred spiral galaxies that appear in Messier's catalogue. M58 is one of the brightest galaxies in the Virgo Cluster. From 1779 it was arguably (though unknown at that time) the farthest known astronomical object until the release of the New General Catalogue in the 1880s and even more so the publishing of redshift values in the 1920s. Like many other spiral galaxies of the Virgo Cluster (e.g. Messier 90), Messier 58 is an anemic galaxy with low star formation activity concentrated within the galaxy's optical disk, and relatively little neutral hydrogen, also located inside its disk, concentrated in clumps, compared with other galaxies of similar morphological type. This deficiency of gas is believed to be caused by interactions with Virgo's intra-cluster medium. Messier 58 has a low-luminosity active galactic nucleus, where a starburst may be present as well as a supermassive black hole with a mass of around 70 million solar masses. It is also one of the very few galaxies known to possess a UCNR (ultra-compact nuclear ring), a series of star-forming regions located in a very small ring around the center of the galaxy. This led to its being dubbed the "ring bearer galaxy" by the popular astronomy YouTube program "Deep Sky videos".
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