Astronomy Picture of the Day

   [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                              2022 September 2
    [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest
                        resolution version available.

                          M51: The Whirlpool Galaxy
                Image Credit & [3]Copyright: [4]Fabian Neyer

   Explanation: [5]Find the Big Dipper and follow the handle away from the
   dipper's bowl until you get to the last bright star. Then, just slide
   your telescope a little south and west and [6]you'll come upon this
   stunning pair of interacting galaxies, [7]the 51st entry in Charles
   Messier's famous catalog. Perhaps the [8]original spiral nebula, the
   large galaxy with well defined spiral structure is also cataloged as
   NGC 5194. Its [9]spiral arms and dust lanes clearly sweep in front of
   its companion galaxy (left), [10]NGC 5195. The pair are about 31
   million light-years distant and officially lie within the angular
   boundaries of the small constellation [11]Canes Venatici. In direct
   telescopic views, M51 looks faint and fuzzy to the eye. [12]But this
   remarkably deep image shows off details of the interacting galaxy's
   striking colors and galactic [13]tidal debris. The image includes
   nearly 90 hours of narrowband data that also reveals a vast glowing
   cloud of reddish ionized hydrogen gas [14]discovered in the M51 system.

                    Tomorrow's picture: 29 seconds later
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    Authors & editors: [26]Robert Nemiroff ([27]MTU) & [28]Jerry Bonnell
                                 ([29]UMCP)
          NASA Official: Phillip Newman [30]Specific rights apply.
              [31]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
                A service of: [32]ASD at [33]NASA / [34]GSFC,
                         [35]NASA Science Activation
                           & [36]Michigan Tech. U.

References

   1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
   2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2209/m51_l2.jpg
   3. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply
   4. http://www.starpointing.com/
   5. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210731.html
   6. http://www.universetoday.com/35997/messier-51/
   7. http://messier.obspm.fr/m/m051.html
   8. http://messier.seds.org/more/m051_rosse.html
   9. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/messier-51-the-whirlpool-galaxy
  10. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130831.html
  11. http://www.hawastsoc.org/deepsky/cvn/index.html
  12. http://www.starpointing.com/ccd/m51.html
  13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200108.html
  14. https://arxiv.org/abs/1804.01699
  15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220901.html
  16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
  17. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html
  18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html
  19. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html
  21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss
  22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html
  23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html
  24. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=220902
  25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220903.html
  26. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  27. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  28. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  29. http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  30. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  31. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  32. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  33. https://www.nasa.gov/
  34. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  35. https://science.nasa.gov/learners
  36. http://www.mtu.edu/