The Pinwheel Galaxy (also known as M101) is a spiral galaxy in the constellation of Ursa Major (the Great Bear) and is roughly 170,000 lightyears in diameter, which makes it roughly 70% larger than our own galaxy. It is approximately 20.9 million lightyears away, which means that we are seeing it as it was about 20.9 million years ago!
The Pinwheel is believed to have had a collision with another galaxy in the past, and is notable for many large, bright star-forming regions. This activity has resulted in the production of hundreds of billions of stars.
Throughout its spiral arms, the Pinwheel Galaxy demonstrates many bright, hot regions. This is the result of hydrogen gas clouds contracting under their own enormous gravity; a phenomenon that leads to the birth of new stars.
This image is one of the largest and most detailed of a spiral galaxy that has been released from Hubble. The galaxy’s portrait is actually a montage of 51 individual Hubble exposures, merged with portions from photographs taken from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (located in Hawaii) and the Kitt Peak National Observatory (located in Arizona).
Considering this galaxy is so faint and is barely visible to all but the largest telescopes, Hubble has given us the opportunity to wonder and observe unparalleled detail across many different wavelengths with unequalled resolution. Slowly the secrets of the Universe are being uncovered, one-by-one.
This is just one of nearly a trillion galaxies that make up our Universe. This is what it looks to us right now – can you stretch your imagination to these vast distances? Look at it this way…
The nearest star system (apart from the Sun) is Alpha Centauri, a triple-star system visible from the southern hemisphere, and is just over four lightyears away. The Voyager spacecraft, travelling at 40,000mph, would take 70,000 years to reach that particular star….
… the Pinwheel Galaxy is 21 million lightyears away!
Enjoy the view; it may look quite different now!
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Credit for Hubble Image: NASA, ESA, K. Kuntz (JHU), F. Bresolin (University of Hawaii), J. Trauger (Jet Propulsion Lab), J. Mould (NOAO), Y.-H. Chu (University of Illinois, Urbana), and STScI
Credit for CFHT Image: Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope/ J.-C. Cuillandre/Coelum
Credit for NOAO Image: G. Jacoby, B. Bohannan, M. Hanna/ NOAO/AURA/NSF
