Messier 101 has a pancake-like shape that we view face-on. This perspective shows off the spiral structure that gives it the nickname the Pinwheel Galaxy. In this Hubble image, taken in visible light, the bright blue clumps are regions where new stars have formed. The yellowish core consists mainly of old stars. The dark brown dust lanes are colder and denser regions where interstellar clouds may collapse to form new stars. All of these features are shaped into a beautiful spiral pattern by gravity and rotation. Astronomers use visible light to study where and how stars form in spiral galaxies.
About the Object:
R.A. Position: 14h 3m 13.0s
Dec. Position: 54° 20' 52.99"
Constellation: Ursa Major
Distance: 21.8 million light-years (6.7 megaparsecs)
Dimensions: This image is 18 arcminutes (114,000 light-years or 35,000 parsecs) wide.
About the Data:
Data Description:
This image was created from HST data from the following proposals: 9490: K. Kuntz (Johns Hopkins University), 9492: F. Bresolin (University of Hawaii), 5210: J. Trauger (Jet Propulsion Laboratory), 5397: J. Mould (NOAO), 6829: Y.-C. Chu (University of Illinois, Urbana) The Hubble exposures have been superimposed on ground-based images visible at the edge of the image, taken with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in Hawaii and with the 0.9-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory, part of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Arizona.
Instrument
HST>ACS/WFC and HST>WFPC2
Exposure Dates
March 1994, September 1994, June 1999, November 2002, and January 2003
Filters
F435W (B), F555W (V)), and F814W (I)
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