                        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 November 27

                                 Messier 101
                    Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CFHT, NOAO;
     Acknowledgement - K.Kuntz (GSFC), F.Bresolin (U.Hawaii), J.Trauger
                (JPL), J.Mould (NOAO), Y.-H.Chu (U. Illinois)

   Explanation: Big, beautiful spiral galaxy M101 is one of the last
   entries in Charles Messier's famous catalog, but definitely not one of
   the least. About 170,000 light-years across, this galaxy is enormous,
   almost twice the size of our own Milky Way. M101 was also one of the
   original spiral nebulae observed by Lord Rosse's large 19th century
   telescope, the Leviathan of Parsontown. Assembled from 51 exposures
   recorded by the Hubble Space Telescope in the 20th and 21st centuries,
   with additional data from ground based telescopes, this mosaic spans
   about 40,000 light-years across the central region of M101 in one of
   the highest definition spiral galaxy portraits ever released from
   Hubble. The sharp image shows stunning features of the galaxy's face-on
   disk of stars and dust along with background galaxies, some visible
   right through M101 itself. Also known as the Pinwheel Galaxy, M101 lies
   within the boundaries of the northern constellation Ursa Major, about
   25 million light-years away.

                  Tomorrow's picture: Churyumov-Gerasimenko
     __________________________________________________________________

       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
                NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

