                        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.

                                2022 June 13

                    M51: The Whirlpool Galaxy from Hubble
    Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble, HLA; Processing & Copyright: Bernard
                                   Miller

   Explanation: The Whirlpool Galaxy is a classic spiral galaxy. At only
   30 million light years distant and fully 60 thousand light years
   across, M51, also known as NGC 5194, is one of the brightest and most
   picturesque galaxies on the sky. The featured image is a digital
   combination of images taken in different colors by the Earth-orbiting
   Hubble Space Telescope, highlighting many sharp features. Anyone with a
   good pair of binoculars, however, can see this Whirlpool toward the
   constellation of the Hunting Dogs (Canes Venatici). M51 is a spiral
   galaxy of type Sc and is the dominant member of a whole group of
   galaxies. Astronomers speculate that M51's spiral structure is
   primarily due to its gravitational interaction with the smaller galaxy
   on the image left.

                   Tomorrow's picture: pinnacle satellites
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                             & Michigan Tech. U.

