Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa)  ·  Contains:  M 101  ·  NGC 5455  ·  NGC 5457
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M101, The Pinwheel Galaxy with SN 2011fe, Ruben Barbosa
M101, The Pinwheel Galaxy with SN 2011fe
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M101, The Pinwheel Galaxy with SN 2011fe

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
M101, The Pinwheel Galaxy with SN 2011fe, Ruben Barbosa
M101, The Pinwheel Galaxy with SN 2011fe
Powered byPixInsight

M101, The Pinwheel Galaxy with SN 2011fe

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Description

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

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

* Image acquisition (Lum) by Liverpool Telescope.

* 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.

The red arrow points to SN 2011fe, initially designated PTF 11kly, a Type Ia supernova.

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M101, The Pinwheel Galaxy with SN 2011fe, Ruben Barbosa