Astronomers detect extended ionized gas around Messier 77

Using the Circumgalactic H-alpha Spectrograph (CHαS), astronomers have performed spectroscopic observations of a nearby active galaxy designated Messier 77. They detected a very extended structure of ionized gas around this galaxy. The finding was reported in a research paper published August 22 on the preprint server arXiv and accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal.