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Credit & Copyright: Lorand Fenyes
Explanation:
One of the brightest galaxies in planet Earth's sky is similar in size
to our Milky Way Galaxy: big,
beautiful
Messier 81.
Also known as NGC 3031 or Bode's galaxy for its 18th century discoverer,
this grand spiral
can be found toward the northern constellation
of Ursa Major, the Great Bear.
The sharp, detailed telescopic
view reveals M81's bright yellow nucleus, blue
spiral arms, pinkish starforming regions, and sweeping
cosmic
dust lanes.
But some dust lanes actually run through the galactic disk (left of center),
contrary to other prominent
spiral
features.
The errant dust lanes may be the lingering
result of a close encounter between
M81 and the nearby galaxy M82 lurking outside of this frame.
Scrutiny of variable stars in M81 has yielded a
well-determined
distance
for an external galaxy -- 11.8 million light-years.
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A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: M 81 - spiral galaxy
Publications with words: M 81 - spiral galaxy
See also: