Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa)  ·  Contains:  M 101  ·  NGC 5455  ·  NGC 5457  ·  NGC 5461  ·  NGC 5471
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M101 - Pinwheel Galaxy, Alessandro Cavallaro
M101 - Pinwheel Galaxy
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M101 - Pinwheel Galaxy

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M101 - Pinwheel Galaxy, Alessandro Cavallaro
M101 - Pinwheel Galaxy
Powered byPixInsight

M101 - Pinwheel Galaxy

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Description

Messier 101 (or NGC 5457) is a beautiful spiral galaxy about 21 million light years away from the Sun in the constellation of the Ursa Major.

About one and a half times bigger than the MilkyWay with a diameter of about 170000 ly it hosts about a trillion stars.

M101 is asymmetrical due to the tidal forces from interactions with its companion galaxies. These gravitational interactions compress interstellar hydrogen gas, which then triggers strong star formation activity in M101's spiral arms that can be detected in ultraviolet images. (source Wikipedia)

Copyright: Alessandro Cavallaro

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M101 - Pinwheel Galaxy, Alessandro Cavallaro