Astronomy Picture of the Week – Whirlpool Galaxy

March 3, 2011 /

This image of the spiral galaxy M51, dubbed the Whirlpool Galaxy, was taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. M51 is a typical spiral galaxy which includes graceful, curving arms, pink star-forming regions, and brilliant blue strands of star clusters. It is located at a distance of approximately 31 million light-years from the Milky Way Galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici. It is one of the most famous galaxies in the sky. M51 can easily be observed by amateur astronomers, and may even be seen with binoculars.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI), and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

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Paul Tomaszewski

Paul Tomaszewski is a science & tech writer as well as a programmer and entrepreneur. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of CosmoBC. He has a degree in computer science from John Abbott College, a bachelor's degree in technology from the Memorial University of Newfoundland, and completed some business and economics classes at Concordia University in Montreal. While in college he was the vice-president of the Astronomy Club. In his spare time he is an amateur astronomer and enjoys reading or watching science-fiction. You can follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter.