Media Information
 
 
 
Collection:
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Collection
Title:
M51: The Whirlpool Galaxy in Dust and Stars
Explanation:
The Whirlpool Galaxy is a classic spiral galaxy. At only 30 million light years [ http://www.pa.msu.e…] distant and fully 60 thousand light years across, M51 [ http://www.seds.org…], also known as NGC [ http://www.seds.org…] 5194, is one of the brightest and most picturesque galaxies [ http://www.seds.org…] on the sky. The above image [ http://heritage.sts…] is a digital combination of a ground-based image from the 0.9-meter telescope [ http://www.noao.edu…] at Kitt Peak National Observatory [ http://www.noao.edu…] and a space-based image from the Hubble Space Telescope [ http://www.stsci.ed…] highlighting sharp features normally too red [ http://www.ipac.cal…] to be seen. Anyone with a good pair of binoculars [ http://www.birdwatc…Binoculars Work ], however, can see this Whirlpool [ http://heritage.sts…] toward the constellation [ http://www.physics.…] of Canes Venatici [ http://www.astronom…]. M51 is a spiral galaxy [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] of type Sc [ http://www.astr.ua.…] and is the dominant member of a whole group of galaxies [ http://www.seds.org…]. Astronomers speculate that M51 [ http://heritage.sts…]'s spiral structure [ http://www.ifa.hawa…] is primarily due to its gravitational interaction with a smaller galaxy [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] just off the top of this image.
Credit and Copyright:
N. Scoville (Caltech [ http://www.astro.ca…]), T. Rector ( (NOAO [ http://www.noao.edu/]) et al. [ http://heritage.sts…], Hubble Heritage Team [ http://heritage.sts…], NASA [ http://www.nasa.gov/]
keyword:
spiral galaxy
keyword:
M51
keyword:
Whirlpool Galaxy
facet_where:
Hawaii
facet_where:
M51
facet_where:
Whirlpool Galaxy
facet_where:
Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
facet_what:
Canes Venatici
facet_what:
Hubble Space Telescope (HST)
original url:
http://antwrp.gsfc.…
UID:
SPD-APOD-ap010410

M51: The Whirlpool Galaxy in Dust and Stars
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