21st Century Pinwheel Galaxy
Big, beautiful spiral galaxy M101 is almost twice the size of our own Milky Way Galaxy, about 170,000 light-years across! Also known as the Pinwheel Galaxy, M101 lies within the boundaries of the northern constellation Ursa Major, about 25 million light-years away. This multiwavelength view of this large spiral galaxy, is a composite of images recorded by space-based telescopes in the 21st century. Image credit: NASA, ESA, CXC, JPL, Caltech STScI
From X-rays to infrared wavelengths (high to low energies), the image data was taken from the Hubble Space Telescope (yellow), the Chandra X-ray Observatory (purple), the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (blue) and the Spitzer Space Telescope (red).
via apod
- See also:
Star Size Comparison
Clues of Dark Matter in Galactic smash-up
The mysterious Galactic Haze
Virtual flight over Asteroid Vesta
Videos of Annular Solar Eclipse May 20 2012
A Change in the Air
Recreating a Slice of the Universe
The Cosmic Tourist
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