Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along
with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2019 March 15

A View Toward M101

Image Credit & Copyright: Christoph Kaltseis, CEDIC 2019

Explanation: Big, beautiful spiral galaxy M101 is one of the last entries in Charles Messier's famous catalog,
but definitely not one of the least. About 170,000 light-years across, this galaxy is enormous, almost twice the
size of our own Milky Way galaxy. M101 was also one of the original spiral nebulae observed by Lord
Rosse's large 19th century telescope, the Leviathan of Parsontown. M101 shares this modern telescopic field
of view with more distant background galaxies, foreground stars within the Milky Way, and a companion
dwarf galaxy NGC 5474 (lower right). The colors of the Milky Way stars can also be found in the starlight
from the large island universe. Its core is dominated by light from cool yellowish stars. Along its grand
design spiral arms are the blue colors of hotter, young stars mixed with obscuring dust lanes and pinkish star
forming regions. Also known as the Pinwheel Galaxy, M101 lies within the boundaries of the northern
constellation Ursa Major, about 23 million light-years away. Its companion NGC 5474 has likely been
distorted by its past gravitational interactions with the dominant M101.

Tomorrow's picture: southern sky view

< | Archive | Submissions | Index | Search | Calendar | RSS | Education | About APOD | Discuss | >

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.