Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Newest Look at M51 The Whirlpool Galaxy


The brighter the color, the more dense the dust. Turns out to be less clumpy and more spread out dust-wise than expected.

Definitely my favorite galaxy, until Astronomers find a better one. Sombrero is a close second.

Phil Plait did a great job of covering it here.

The photo above is 18,000 light years across.

From Universe Today, I searched  for and found the nice photograph below from the Greek Astronomy Club of the entire galaxy and it's leetle friend galaxy in the visible light spectrum, here .


And here's the old-school sexy close-up:

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