Whirlpool Galaxy

grand-design spiral with a companion · M51

31 million light-years from Earth

The arms are a density wave that stars drift through, lighting up pink star-forming nebulae. The small galaxy NGC 5195 tugs on the end of one arm.

• 31 million light-years · 76,000 light-years across
• one lap of its disk takes ~200 million years (sped up here)

kind

galaxy

catalogue

M51 · NGC 5194 · NGC 5195