M101, Pinwheel Galaxy, Optical
The galaxy M101 (Messier 101, Pinwheel Galaxy) is a swirling spiral of stars, gas, and dust n the constellation of Ursa Major. It is about 70 percent larger than our own Milky Way galaxy, with a diameter of about 170,000 light-years, and sits at a distance of 21 million light-years from Earth. This means that the light we're seeing in this image left the M101 about 21 million years ago, many millions of years before humans ever walked the Earth. The yellow component is visible light, observed by the Hubble Space Telescope. Most of this light comes from stars, and they trace the same spiral structure as the dust lanes seen in the infrared. Release date May 24, 2012.
Size: 3600px × 3600px
Photo credit: © Photo Researchers / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 101, 2012, 21st, 5457, astronomical, astronomy, body, celestial, century, deep, galaxies, galaxy, heavenly, hst, hubble, image, m101, messier, ngc, object, optical, pinwheel, ppinwheel, science, sky, space, spiral, telescope
