|
Credit & Copyright: The Deep Sky Collective -
Tim Schaeffer,
Carl Björk, Steeve Body, Fabian Neyer, Aki Jain, Ryan Wierckx, Paul Kent, Brian Valente, Antoine & Dalia Grelin,
Nicolas Puig, Stephen Guberski, Mike Hamende, Julian Shapiro, John Dziuba, Mikhail Vasilev, Bogdan Borz, Adrien Keijzer
Explanation:
An intriguing pair of interacting galaxies, M51 is
the 51st entry
in Charles Messier's famous catalog.
Perhaps the
original spiral
nebula,
the large galaxy with whirlpool-like spiral structure seen nearly
face-on is also cataloged as NGC 5194.
Its spiral
arms and dust lanes
sweep in front of its smaller companion galaxy,
NGC 5195.
Some 31 million light-years distant,
within the boundaries of the well-trained constellation
Canes
Venatici,
M51 looks faint and fuzzy to the eye in direct telescopic views.
But this remarkably deep image
shows off stunning details of the galaxy pair's
striking colors and fainter
tidal streams.
The image includes extensive narrowband data to highlight
a vast reddish cloud of ionized hydrogen gas recently
discovered in the M51
system and
known to some as the
H-alpha cliffs.
Foreground dust clouds in the Milky Way and distant background
galaxies are captured in the wide-field view.
A continuing
collaboration of astro-imagers
using telescopes on planet Earth assembled over 3 weeks of exposure time to
create this evolving portrait of M51.
Carl Björk, Steeve Body, Fabian Neyer, Aki Jain, Ryan Wierckx, Paul Kent, Brian Valente, Antoine & Dalia Grelin,
Nicolas Puig, Stephen Guberski, Mike Hamende, Julian Shapiro, John Dziuba, Mikhail Vasilev, Bogdan Borz, Adrien Keijzer
Watch:
The
2024 Geminid Meteor Shower
|
January February March April May June July August September October November December |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: M 51
Publications with words: M 51
See also: