What kind of galaxy is M101?
spiral galaxy
The Pinwheel Galaxy (also known as Messier 101, M101 or NGC 5457) is a face-on spiral galaxy 21 million light-years (6.4 megaparsecs) away from Earth in the constellation Ursa Major.
Is there a Pinwheel Galaxy?
The Pinwheel Galaxy is in the constellation of Ursa Major (also known as the Big Dipper). It is about 70 percent larger than our own Milky Way Galaxy, with a diameter of about 170,000 light years, and sits at a distance of 21 million light years from Earth.
What does the M stand for in the Galaxy name M101?
The giant spiral disk of stars, dust and gas is 170,000 light-years across — nearly twice the diameter of our galaxy, the Milky Way. M101 is estimated to contain at least one trillion stars. The galaxy’s spiral arms are sprinkled with large regions of star-forming nebulas.
How old is M101?
about 20.9 million years ago
M101 has an apparent visual magnitude of 7.86 and is approximately 20.9 million light years distant from Earth, which means that we are seeing it as it was about 20.9 million years ago. The Pinwheel Galaxy contains hundreds of billions of stars and is notable for its many large, bright star forming regions.
What does the M stand for in M104?
The hallmark of the nearly edge-on galaxy is a brilliant, white, bulbous core encircled by thick dust lanes comprising the spiral structure of the galaxy. This dust lane is the site of star formation in the galaxy. The center of M104 is thought to be home to a massive black hole.
What galaxy is 500 million light years away?
Cartwheel Galaxy
The Cartwheel Galaxy (also known as ESO 350-40 or PGC 2248) is a lenticular galaxy and ring galaxy about 500 million light-years away in the constellation Sculptor….
| Cartwheel Galaxy | |
|---|---|
| Redshift | 9050 ± 3 km/s |
| Distance | 500 Mly (150 Mpc) |
| Apparent magnitude (V) | 15.2 |
| Characteristics |
What does the M in M104 stand for?
The Sombrero Galaxy
The center of M104 is thought to be home to a massive black hole. Hubble easily resolves the Sombrero galaxy’s rich system of globular clusters, estimated to be nearly 2,000 in number — 10 times more than the number of globular clusters in our Milky Way galaxy.
Who named M101?
Pierre Méchain
For a long time, it had been one of two common views that M102 may have been an erroneous re-observation of M101, a view backed by a disclaimer of the discovery by its discoverer, Pierre Méchain.
How many stars are in the Needle galaxy?
The Needle Galaxy is located only 3 degrees from the North Galactic Pole and less than 2 degrees east of star, 17 Comae Berenices (mag. +5.3)….NGC 4565 Data Table.
| NGC | 4565 |
|---|---|
| Radius (light-years) | 70,000 |
| Number of Stars | 1 Trillion |
| Notable Feature | Prominent example of an edge-on spiral galaxy |
Is irregular a galaxy?
Irregular galaxies have no particular shape. They are among the smallest galaxies and are full of gas and dust. Having a lot of gas and dust means that these galaxies have a lot of star formation going on within them. This can make them very bright.
How far away is the Cartwheel galaxy from the Milky Way?
about 500 million light-years away
Is the M101 galaxy bright enough to capture from your backyard?
M101 is bright enough to capture from your backyard, but you’ll need to focus on pulling the surface brightness of the galaxy forward during image processing. From my Bortle Class 8 backyard, plenty of exposure time (2-3 hours+) is needed to create an image with a healthy SNR (signal-to-noise ratio)
What kind of galaxy is the Pinwheel Galaxy?
This image of the Pinwheel Galaxy, also known as M101, combines data in the infrared, visible, ultraviolet and X-rays from four of NASA’s space-based telescopes. This multi-spectral view shows that both young and old stars are evenly distributed along M101’s tightly-wound spiral arms.
How big of a telescope do you need to see M101?
This means that a telescope with a focal length of 1370mm like the RCT used for the photo above can really pull this object in for a closer look. I have photographed M101 through a number of telescopes and cameras over the years.
How big is Messier 101 in light years?
Messier 101 (also NGC 5457) lies approximately 21 million light-years from Earth and is measured at an enormous 170,000 light across. This massive grand spiral design galaxy is more than double the size of our own Milky Way Galaxy. An interesting feature of this galaxy is its high population of bright H II regions.