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. 2024 May 2 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. M100: A Grand Design Spiral Galaxy Image Credit & [3]Copyright: [4]Drew Evans Explanation: Majestic on a truly cosmic scale, M100 is appropriately known as a [5]grand design spiral galaxy. The large galaxy of over 100 billion stars has well-defined spiral arms, similar to our own [6]Milky Way. One of the brightest members of the [7]Virgo Cluster of galaxies, [8]M100, also known as NGC 4321 is 56 million [9]light-years distant toward the well-groomed constellation [10]Coma Berenices. In this telescopic image, the face-on grand design spiral shares a nearly 1 degree wide field-of-view with slightly less conspicuous edge-on spiral NGC 4312 (at upper right). The 21 hour long equivalent exposure from a dark sky site near Flagstaff, Arizona, planet Earth, reveals M100's bright blue star clusters and intricate winding dust lanes which are hallmarks of this class of galaxies. Measurements of variable stars in [11]M100 have played an important role in determining the [12]size and age of the Universe. Tomorrow's picture: cloudy exoplanet __________________________________________________________________ [13]< | [14]Archive | [15]Submissions | [16]Index | [17]Search | [18]Calendar | [19]RSS | [20]Education | [21]About APOD | [22]Discuss | [23]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [24]Robert Nemiroff ([25]MTU) & [26]Jerry Bonnell ([27]UMCP) NASA Official: Amber Straughn [28]Specific rights apply. [29]NASA Web Privacy, [30]Accessibility Notices A service of: [31]ASD at [32]NASA / [33]GSFC, [34]NASA Science Activation & [35]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2405/M100_DrewEvans.png 3. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 4. https://www.astrobin.com/users/DrewJEvans/ 5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_design_spiral_galaxy 6. https://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/science/objects/milkyway1.html 7. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110422.html 8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_100 9. https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/light-year/ 10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coma_Berenices 11. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/messier-100 12. http://apod.nasa.gov/debate/debate96.html 13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240501.html 14. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 17. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 22. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=240502 23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240503.html 24. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 25. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 26. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 27. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 28. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 29. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 30. https://www.nasa.gov/general/accessibility/ 31. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 32. https://www.nasa.gov/ 33. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 34. https://science.nasa.gov/learners 35. http://www.mtu.edu/