Showing posts with label PINWHEEL GALAXY. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PINWHEEL GALAXY. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

THE PINWHEEL GALAXY



This image of the Pinwheel Galaxy, or 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. Such composite images allow astronomers to see how features in one part of the spectrum match up with those seen in other parts. It is like seeing with a regular camera, an ultraviolet camera, night-vision goggles and X-ray vision, all at the same time.

The Pinwheel Galaxy is in the constellation of Ursa Major (also known as the Big Dipper). It is about 70% 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. This means that the light we're seeing in this image left the Pinwheel Galaxy about 21 million years ago - many millions of years before humans ever walked the Earth.

The hottest and most energetic areas in this composite image are shown in purple, where the Chandra X-ray Observatory observed the X-ray emission from exploded stars, million-degree gas, and material colliding around black holes.

Credit X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; IR & UV: NASA/JPL-Caltech; Optical: NASA/STScI
Scale Image is 16.8 arcmin across
Category Normal Galaxies & Starburst Galaxies
Coordinates (J2000) RA 14h 03m 12.59s | Dec +54° 20’ 56.70''
Constellation Ursa Major
Observation Dates 03/26/2000 - 01/01/2005 with 26 pointings
Observation Time 274 hours (11 days 10 hours)
Obs. IDs 934, 2065, 4731-4737, 5296-5297, 5300, 5309, 5322-5323, 5337-5340, 6114-6115, 6118, 6152, 6169-6170, 6175
Color Code X-ray (Purple); Infrared (Red); Optical (Yellow); Ultraviolet (Blue)
Instrument ACIS
Also Known As NGC 5457,  The Pinwheel Galaxy
Distance Estimate About 21 million light years
Release Date May 24, 2012

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