#ngc5194

M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy, NGC5194/5195

The spiral galaxy M51,  (the Whirlpool Galaxy) observed with the ODI camera on the WIYN telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory, May 2013.   Even though the galaxy is almost 30 million light years away, the image clearly shows clusters of young, hot stars that light up the spiral arms.  Threaded through the arms are dark “dust lanes”, where sooty material left over from previous generations of stars has settled.  More dust lanes can be seen in the bridge of luminous stars and gas that connects Messier 51 to its companion, the peculiar galaxy NGC 5195, in the upper part of the image.

credit line: K. Rhode, M. Young and WIYN/NOAO/AURA/NSF 

M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy, NGC5194/5195

This image of M51 (NGC5194/5195), was made by combining three CCD frames, taken at the Kitt Peak 0.9m telescope in 1991.  By using different filters in front of the monochrome detector, corresponding approximately to the primary colors red, green and blue, it is possible to recreate a true color picture. Each image was processed to correct for detector sensitivity variations and to remove incorrect regions caused by manufacturing defects and by the arrival of cosmic rays at the telescope. Note that this image was reworked in July 2000 to provide a better looking and scientifically more accurate color balance.

This picture was made using the `drift scan' technique, in which the telescope is held fixed, not tracking against the Earth's rotation in the usual manner. As the sky passes across the detector, each row of the array is `clocked' along to the next row in step with the apparent motion of the astronomical image. This makes it possible to take a picture of an arbitrarily long strip of the sky, and specialized telescopes exist solely to take advantage of the simplicity of a fixed, non-tracking mounting. The large size of the M51 system, famous as the first clearly recognized spiral nebula, made it necessary to use the drift scan technique. Orientation: N to the left, E down. 

credit line: Todd Boroson/NOAO/AURA/NSF 

M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy, NGC5194/5195

This image of M51 was taken with the NOAO Mosaic CCD camera on the   National Science Foundation's 0.9-meter telescope located at Kitt  Peak National Observatory near Tucson, AZ.  Located in the  constellation of Canes Venatici, the "hunting dogs", M51 consists of  the large spiral galaxy NGC5194 and its smaller companion NGC5195.  Hot, massive stars which recently formed in NGC5194 give the galaxy  its bluish color.  The reddish areas are nebulae in the galaxy in  which stars are rapidly forming.  M51 is approximately 31 million  light-years away and over 65,000 light-years in diameter.  The color  image was generated by combining images taken through five filters  (B, V, R, I and Hydrogen-alpha).  The image shown above is only one  tenth of the entire field of view of Mosaic on the 0.9-meter telescope.

credit line: T.A.Rector and Monica Ramirez/NOAO/AURA/NSF 

M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy, NGC5194/5195

The Whirlpool Nebula in the constellation Canes Venatici was the first in which spiral structure was clearly seen. It is actually a pair of interacting galaxies. Kitt Peak 4-meter Mayall telescope, 1975

credit line: NOAO/AURA/NSF