Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn)  ·  Contains:  IC 4263  ·  M 51  ·  NGC 5194  ·  NGC 5195  ·  Whirlpool galaxy
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M51 The Whirlpool Galaxy, Stephen Jennette
M51 The Whirlpool Galaxy
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M51 The Whirlpool Galaxy

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
M51 The Whirlpool Galaxy, Stephen Jennette
M51 The Whirlpool Galaxy
Powered byPixInsight

M51 The Whirlpool Galaxy

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Description

The Whirlpool Galaxy is an interacting grand-design spiral galaxy with a Seyfert 2 active galactic nucleus in the constellation Canes Venatici. It was the first galaxy to be classified as a spiral galaxy. Recently it was estimated to be 23 ± 4 million light-years from the Milky Way, but different methods yield distances between 15 and 35 million ly. Messier 51 is one of the best known galaxies in the sky.

2 hours of 10 minute sub-exposures with 30 x 1 minute sub-exposures blended in for the core.

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M51 The Whirlpool Galaxy, Stephen Jennette