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Did M101 Pinwheel in 11 years?, KuriousGeorge

Did M101 Pinwheel in 11 years?

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Did M101 Pinwheel in 11 years?, KuriousGeorge

Did M101 Pinwheel in 11 years?

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Description

I had a friend ask me last night if we could see a galaxy rotate in our lifetime.

I suspect you'd need some very high-res data to do that. I thought my sub arc-second data of M101 compared to the Hubble would be an interesting start...

2020 M101 by KG

2009 M101 by Hubble

Here I lined them up using bright (Milky Way?) stars using only size scaling and rotation – but no field distortion.

I didn't notice any significant rotation, but maybe someone has a better way to do this? I don't know what's a good reference that would not rotate, or at least not in the same way.

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Did M101 Pinwheel in 11 years?, KuriousGeorge