Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa)  ·  Contains:  M 101  ·  NGC 5447  ·  NGC 5449  ·  NGC 5450  ·  NGC 5451  ·  NGC 5453  ·  NGC 5455  ·  NGC 5457  ·  NGC 5461  ·  NGC 5462  ·  NGC 5471  ·  Pinwheel galaxy
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M-101 LRGB, Eric Kallgren
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M-101 LRGB

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
M-101 LRGB, Eric Kallgren
Powered byPixInsight

M-101 LRGB

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Description

The Pinwheel Galaxy (also known as Messier 101, M101 or NGC 5457) is a face-on spiral galaxy 21 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Ursa Major

M101 is a large galaxy, with a diameter of 170,000 light-years. By comparison, the Milky Way has a diameter of 100,000[11] light-years. It has around a trillion stars, twice the number in the Milky Way.[12] It has a disk mass on the order of 100 billion solar masses, along with a small central bulge of about 3 billion solar masses.[13] Its characteristics can be compared to those of Andromeda Galaxy.

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M-101 LRGB, Eric Kallgren

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