                         Astronomy Picture of the Day

                         Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our
 fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a
                           professional astronomer.

                                  2019 May 6
                    Virtual Flyby of the Whirlpool Galaxy
   Video Credit: F. Summers [2] , J. DePasquale, and D. Player (STScI [3] );
        Music: Into the Wormhole [4] ( Jingle Punks [5]  via Youtube)

Explanation: What would it look like to fly over a spiral galaxy? To help
visualize this, astronomers and animators at the Space Telescope Science
Institute [6] computed a virtual flyby [7]  of the Whirlpool Galaxy [8]  (M51)
using data and images from the Hubble Space Telescope [9] . At only 25 million
light years [10] distant and fully 50 thousand light years across, the
Whirlpool [11]  is one of the brightest and most picturesque [12]  galaxies on
the sky. Visible during the virtual flyby [13]  are spiral arms dominated by
young blue stars [14] , older lighter-colored stars, dark lanes of dust [15] ,
and bright red emission nebulae [16] . Many galaxies far in the distance can
be seen right through M51 [17] . The visualization should be considered a
time-lapse [18] , because otherwise the speed of the virtual camera would need
to be very near the speed of light [19] .

                  Tomorrow's picture: interstellar tapestry

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    Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [31] (MTU [32] ) & Jerry Bonnell [33]
                                  (UMCP [34] )
          NASA Official:  Phillip Newman Specific rights apply [35] .
              NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices [36]
              A service of: ASD [37]  at NASA [38]  / GSFC [39]
                           & Michigan Tech. U. [40]
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Site notes:
  [1] archivepix.html
  [2]
http://hubblesite.org/explore_astronomy/hubbles_universe_unfiltered/
meet_your_host
  [3] http://www.stsci.edu/
  [4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCr-KI-hwc4
  [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jingle_Punks_Music
  [6] http://www.stsci.edu/who-we-are
  [7] http://hubblesite.org/video/1199/science
  [8] ap171019.html
  [9] http://www.stsci.edu/hst/HST_overview
  [10] https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/light-year/en/
  [11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whirlpool_Galaxy
  [12] ap130224.html
  [13] http://hubblesite.org/video/1199/science
  [14] ap161019.html
  [15] ap151119.html
  [16] emission_nebulae.html
  [17] ap161208.html
  [18] ap130331.html
  [19] ap111018.html
  [20] ap190505.html
  [21] archivepix.html
  [22] lib/apsubmit2015.html
  [23] lib/aptree.html
  [24] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  [25] calendar/allyears.html
  [26] /apod.rss
  [27] lib/edlinks.html
  [28] lib/about_apod.html
  [29] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=190506
  [30] ap190507.html
  [31] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  [32] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  [33] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  [34] http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  [35] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [36] https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  [37] https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  [38] https://www.nasa.gov/
  [39] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  [40] http://www.mtu.edu/
