Also known as Messier 51, this spiral staircase-shaped galaxy will be visible for most of the evening.
An illustration of the night sky on April 14 showing the location of the whirlpool galaxy close to Ursa Major.
It takes an instrument with some real observing power to see the 76,900 light-year-wide galaxy M51 in its full glory, however. For instance, when astronomers looked at M51 with the , they were able to see the galaxy's incredible arms of stars and gas, the most striking feature of spiral galaxies like this.
These spiral arms aren't just aesthetic features, however, as these waves of increased density pass overAstronomers think that the spiral arms of M51 may be especially pronounced because of a close encounter with a compact nearby galaxy, NGC 5195. This small yellow galaxy has been sailing past this cosmic whirlpool for hundreds of millions of years and appears to be tugging on one of the arms of M51. This galactic tug-o-war is also triggering star formation.
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