Description (Wikipedia)The
Whirlpool Galaxy, also known as
Messier 51a,
M51a, and
NGC 5194, is an
interactinggrand-designspiral galaxy with a
Seyfert 2active galactic nucleus. It lies in the
constellationCanes Venatici, and was the first galaxy to be classified as a spiral galaxy. Its distance is 31 million
light-years away from Earth.
The galaxy and its companion,
NGC 5195, are easily observed by
amateur astronomers, and the two galaxies may be seen with
binoculars. The Whirlpool Galaxy has been extensively observed by professional astronomers, who study it to understand galaxy structure (particularly structure associated with the
spiral arms) and galaxy interactions.
The Whirlpool Galaxy lies 28 million light-years from Earth and has an estimated diameter of 76,000 light-years. Overall the galaxy is about 43% the size of the
Milky Way. Its
mass is estimated to be 160 billion solar masses, or around 10.3% of the mass of Milky Way Galaxy.
A
black hole, once thought to be surrounded by a ring of dust, but now believed to be partially occluded by dust instead, exists at the heart of the spiral. A pair of
ionization cones extend from the active galactic nucleus.
Personal noteThis was one of the first objects I tried to image when I started the hobby some years ago with my second hand C8 and my stock DSLR. It was very exciting to see the vague spiral arms of the galaxy as I knew it from the picture books. Now I am back with better equipment, better skies and better skills to image this very satisfying target.
WorkflowPixinsight: WBPP, NormScaleGradient, DBE, EZ denoise, Histogram Transformation, ArcsynthStretch, Curves, Range Mask, MLT, HDR-MT.
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