Messier 105 is an elliptical galaxy located in the northern constellation Leo, 32 million light-years from Earth and contains about 40 billion stars. Although structures within elliptical galaxies are hard to resolve, studies have shown that stars near the galaxy's centre are moving very rapidly most likely due to the presence of a supermassive black hole with an estimated mass between 140 and 200 million solar masses. Charles Messier, the 18th century French astronomer, catalogued over 100 galaxies and clusters. Through the telescopes available at the time, comets, nebulae, globular clusters and galaxies appeared just as faint, diffuse blobs. This image was taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.