M51 - Whirlpool Galaxy
Couple of weeks back we got an introduction of how a galaxy looks like, with an extremely high resolution image (most detailed so far), of our nearest neighbor Andromeda galaxy - M31 (link to post in comments)
Today, I will write about some awe inspiring facts and share links of one of the most magnificent galaxy, Whirlpool Galaxy (aka Messier 51 or just M51); the picture tells the reason behind the naming.
M51 is the First galaxy to be classified as a ‘Spiral Galaxy’, at a distance of about 25 million light years and with the axis or rotation directly pointing towards us, giving a ‘full face view’, is a well known and studied astronomical object. M51 has a companion, a small galaxy named 51b and is gravitationally interacting with and will merge in future.
One can look at the picture(s) for hours and appreciate the beauty, the colours, spiral arms, ‘dust lanes’; it is hypnotic and after a while creates illusion of inward spiralling movement.
Now zoom into the image, you will see bright Red and Blue specks/dots/patches. Based on experience with the Andromeda post/picture, one would be tempted to appreciate these innumerable ‘apparent stars’, but no, Universe always has some surprise in its bag, and in this case, would you believe if I tell you that each of those specs is NOT a star, but it is a ‘Cluster of few LAKH stars’, yes you read that correctly.
Take a gasp and look at the picture again. I am sure you are looking at M51 much differently now :)
Links
Couple of weeks back we got an introduction of how a galaxy looks like, with an extremely high resolution image (most detailed so far), of our nearest neighbor Andromeda galaxy - M31 (link to post in comments)
Today, I will write about some awe inspiring facts and share links of one of the most magnificent galaxy, Whirlpool Galaxy (aka Messier 51 or just M51); the picture tells the reason behind the naming.
M51 is the First galaxy to be classified as a ‘Spiral Galaxy’, at a distance of about 25 million light years and with the axis or rotation directly pointing towards us, giving a ‘full face view’, is a well known and studied astronomical object. M51 has a companion, a small galaxy named 51b and is gravitationally interacting with and will merge in future.
One can look at the picture(s) for hours and appreciate the beauty, the colours, spiral arms, ‘dust lanes’; it is hypnotic and after a while creates illusion of inward spiralling movement.
Now zoom into the image, you will see bright Red and Blue specks/dots/patches. Based on experience with the Andromeda post/picture, one would be tempted to appreciate these innumerable ‘apparent stars’, but no, Universe always has some surprise in its bag, and in this case, would you believe if I tell you that each of those specs is NOT a star, but it is a ‘Cluster of few LAKH stars’, yes you read that correctly.
Take a gasp and look at the picture again. I am sure you are looking at M51 much differently now :)
Links
- Image Tour http://hubblesite.org/video/881/image_tours
Photos:
- M51 and M51b - Optical spectrum picture by Hubble Space Telescope
- M51 - Optical image with overlay of Hydrogen gas distribution (in blue)
- M51 in Infrared on the right, visible spectrum on Left.
The Infrared light passes through dust, visible light gets blocked. The dark spirals in the Left image are called dust lanes, those show up bright in the infrared as that dust is getting heated by the background light/radiation and emits (heat ) in infrared spectrum.
- M51 - composite with X-Ray radiation
- M51 and M51b sketch from 1850
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