Astronomy Picture of the Day

Posted By admin On April 14, 2011 @ 10:38 pm In Photo Essays | Comments Disabled

Big, beautiful spiral galaxy M101 is one of the last entries in Charles Messier’s ^[1] famous catalog, but definitely not one of the least ^[2].

^[3]

Messier 101
Credit: Hubble Legacy Archive ^[4], ESA ^[5], NASA ^[6]; Processing and additional imaging – Robert Gendler ^[7]

Explanation: Big, beautiful spiral galaxy M101 is one of the last entries in Charles Messier’s ^[1] famous catalog, but definitely not one of the least ^[2]. 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 ^[8] observed by Lord Rosse’s large 19th century telescope, the Leviathan ^[9] of Parsontown. This mosaic of M101 ^[10] was assembled from Hubble Legacy Archive data. Additional ground-based data was included to further define the telltale reddish emission from atomic hydrogen gas in this gorgeous galaxy’s ^[11] star forming regions. The sharp image shows stunning features in the galaxy’s face-on disk of stars and dust along with background galaxies, some visible right through M101 itself. Also known as the Pinwheel Galaxy, M101 ^[12] lies within the boundaries of the northern constellation Ursa Major ^[13], about 25 million light-years away.

 

Visit the NASA/JPL website to view more Astronomy Pictures of the Day ^[14]

Article printed from Recorder Online: http://www.berthoudrecorder.com

URL to article: http://www.berthoudrecorder.com/2011/04/14/astronomy-picture-of-the-day-57/

URLs in this post:

[1] Charles Messier’s: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap000311.html

[2] one of the least: http://www.seds.org/messier/m/m102d.html

[3] Image: http://www.berthoudrecorder.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/M101HST-GendlerM.jpg

[4] Hubble Legacy Archive: http://hla.stsci.edu/

[5] ESA: http://www.esa.int/

[6] NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/

[7] Robert Gendler: http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/

[8] spiral nebulae: http://www.seds.org/messier/more/m101_rosse.html

[9] 19th century telescope, the Leviathan: http://labbey.com/Telescopes/Parsontown.html

[10] This mosaic of M101: http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/M101-HST-Gendler.html

[11] this gorgeous galaxy’s: http://www.astropix.com/HTML/SHOW_DIG/M101_Pinwheel_Galaxy.HTM

[12] Pinwheel Galaxy, M101: http://www.seds.org/messier/m/m101.html

[13] Ursa Major: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursa_Major

[14] Astronomy Pictures of the Day: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/

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