Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa)  ·  Contains:  M 101  ·  NGC 5451  ·  NGC 5455  ·  NGC 5457  ·  NGC 5461
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M101, The Pinwheel Galaxy, Ruben Barbosa
M101, The Pinwheel Galaxy
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M101, The Pinwheel Galaxy

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
M101, The Pinwheel Galaxy, Ruben Barbosa
M101, The Pinwheel Galaxy
Powered byPixInsight

M101, The Pinwheel Galaxy

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Description

* Image acquisition (Halpha) by[url= https://www.astrobin.com/users/iosifbodnariu/] Iosif Bodnariu[/url].

* Image acquisition (LRGB) by Jim Misti / Steven Mazlin.

* Processing: Ruben Barbosa.

* Distance: 27 Mly.

The Pinwheel Galaxy (NGC 5457 or M101) is a prominent spiral located about 27 million light-years away, in the direction of the constellation Ursa Major; has almost 200.000 light-years in diameter, making it one of the largest known and brightest in its group of galaxies, the M101 group.

The M101 presents an asymmetric geometry due to the tidal forces that it is subjected by its companion galaxies, which end up compressing the interstellar hydrogen, triggering strong star formation activity along the spiral arms. In the image it is possible to observe numerous HII regions along the spiral arms.

See also M101 close-up:

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M101, The Pinwheel Galaxy, Ruben Barbosa

In these collections

2. Galaxies