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M51: The Whirlpool Galaxy from Hubble

M51: The Whirlpool Galaxy from Hubble

Copyright: Bernard Miller

The Whirlpool Galaxy is a classic spiral galaxy. At only 30 million light years distant and fully 60 thousand light years across, M51, also known as NGC 5194, is one of the brightest and most picturesque galaxies on the sky. The featured image is a digital combination of images taken in different colors by the Earth-orbiting Hubble Space Telescope, highlighting many sharp features. Anyone with a good pair of binoculars, however, can see this Whirlpool toward the constellation of the Hunting Dogs (Canes Venatici). M51 is a spiral galaxy of type Sc and is the dominant member of a whole group of galaxies. Astronomers speculate that M51’s spiral structure is primarily due to its gravitational interaction with the smaller galaxy on the image left.

Courtesy of NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

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Ken & Judy O
Ken & Judy O' Neill
2 years ago

What a photo cannot wait to see what the James Webb Telescope comes up with.?

Ken & Judy O
Ken & Judy O' Neill
2 years ago

The James Webb Telescope will see further than this when fully operational folks.!