Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]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. 2021 September 2 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. M51: The Whirlpool Galaxy Image Credit & [3]Copyright: [4]Josep Drudis Explanation: [5]Find the Big Dipper and follow the handle away from the dipper's bowl until you get to the last bright star. Then, just slide your telescope a little south and west and [6]you'll come upon this stunning pair of interacting galaxies, [7]the 51st entry in Charles Messier's famous catalog. Perhaps the [8]original spiral nebula, the large galaxy with well defined spiral structure is also cataloged as NGC 5194. Its [9]spiral arms and dust lanes clearly sweep in front of its companion galaxy (top), [10]NGC 5195. The pair are about 31 million light-years distant and officially lie within the angular boundaries of the small constellation [11]Canes Venatici. Though M51 looks faint and fuzzy to the eye, [12]deep images like this one reveal its striking colors and galactic [13]tidal debris. Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space __________________________________________________________________ [14]< | [15]Archive | [16]Submissions | [17]Index | [18]Search | [19]Calendar | [20]RSS | [21]Education | [22]About APOD | [23]Discuss | [24]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [25]Robert Nemiroff ([26]MTU) & [27]Jerry Bonnell ([28]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [29]Specific rights apply. [30]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [31]ASD at [32]NASA / [33]GSFC & [34]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2109/M51-SL14-RGB-196-Final-cC.jpg 3. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 4. http://www.astrodrudis.com/ 5. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210731.html 6. http://www.universetoday.com/35997/messier-51/ 7. http://messier.obspm.fr/m/m051.html 8. http://messier.seds.org/more/m051_rosse.html 9. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/messier-51-the-whirlpool-galaxy 10. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130831.html 11. http://www.hawastsoc.org/deepsky/cvn/index.html 12. https://astrodrudis.com/messier-51-ngc-5194/ 13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200108.html 14. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210901.html 15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 17. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 18. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 23. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=210902 24. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210903.html 25. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 26. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 27. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 28. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 29. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 30. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 31. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 32. https://www.nasa.gov/ 33. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 34. http://www.mtu.edu/