                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    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

                          M51: The Whirlpool Galaxy
                   Image Credit & Copyright: Josep Drudis

   Explanation: 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 you'll come upon this
   stunning pair of interacting galaxies, the 51st entry in Charles
   Messier's famous catalog. Perhaps the original spiral nebula, the large
   galaxy with well defined spiral structure is also cataloged as NGC
   5194. Its spiral arms and dust lanes clearly sweep in front of its
   companion galaxy (top), NGC 5195. The pair are about 31 million
   light-years distant and officially lie within the angular boundaries of
   the small constellation Canes Venatici. Though M51 looks faint and
   fuzzy to the eye, deep images like this one reveal its striking colors
   and galactic tidal debris.

                     Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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