Hand-coloured optical photograph of the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101, NGC 5457), a large, bright spiral galaxy (type Sc) some 20 million light years away in
Hand-coloured optical photograph of the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101, NGC 5457), a large, bright spiral galaxy (type Sc) some 20 million light years away in the constellation of Ursa Major. M101 has a mass of three thousand million Suns and a diameter of approximately 200,000 light years, around twice that of our own galaxy, the Milky Way. Its extremely narrow, far-flung spiral arms are dominated by huge clouds of glowing hydrogen, some of which are 3000 light years across. See New Astronomy page 179.
Size: 4996px × 4055px
Photo credit: © Science Photo Library / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 5457, astronomy, cosmology, galactic, galaxy, galaxygalaxy, m101, ngc, pinwheel, pinwhell, science, spiral
