Quote from the Deep Sky Field Guide to Uranometria 2000:
Small, bright, diffuse nucleus in smooth lens with dark lanes.
Barred spiral galaxy M-58 is one of the brighter ones in the “Realm Of The Galaxies” region in the Constellation Virgo. According to K.G.Jones, an 8-inch telescope user may detect the central bar "as an extension of the central nucleus in an E-W direction". However, the spiral arms are notoriously dim even in exposures taken with large telescopes. The red shift (Hubble Constant of 62 Km/sec per Mpc) gives a distance estimate of 80 million light years and a diameter of 116,000 light years. A recent (1997) estimate of the distance to the Virgo Cluster (based on the width of 21-cm HI radio line) is between 59.7 and 75.3 million light years. M-58 is thus probably a cluster member. This galaxy also has a strong double radio source, and several studies conclude that it has an Active Galactic Nucleus. Most astronomers would agree that there is a massive black hole in it’s center ‘eating’ surrounding gas.
Quote describing M-58 from A.Sandage’s The Hubble Atlas Of Galaxies:
There are two very faint outer spiral arms which are smooth in texture and are "massive" ....... They do not show well ..... because of their low surface brightness. Two thin dust lanes can be traced in this outer region near the smooth, massive arm, on the north side of the galaxy. More prominent dust lanes, thin and well defined, can be traced on the inside of the bright inner spiral arms. There is a bar of enhanced luminosity across the central amorphous region.......
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George Normandin, KAS
April 16th, 2002