M101 The Pinwheel Galaxy, AlBroxton

M101 The Pinwheel Galaxy

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Description

The Pinwheel Galaxy (also known as Messier 101 or (NGC 5457) is a face-on spiral galaxy distanced 21 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. First discovered by Pierre Méchain on March 27, 1781, and communicated to Charles Messier who verified its position for inclusion in the Messier Catalogue as one of its final entries. This a nearly face-on spiral with a bright center and symmetric shape. It is located about 27 million light-years from Earth. With an estimated linear diameter of over 170,000 light-years, this is one of the largest disk galaxies known. M101 is a bright object with a magnitude of 7.9. It is easily visible in binoculars and small telescopes, but an instrument larger than 4-inches is required to see any evidence of the galaxy's faint spiral arms.

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Revisions

  • M101 The Pinwheel Galaxy, AlBroxton
    Original
  • Final
    M101 The Pinwheel Galaxy, AlBroxton
    B

Histogram

M101 The Pinwheel Galaxy, AlBroxton

In these collections

Allen Broxton
Galaxies