Astronomy Picture of the Day - Messier 81 (Bode's Galaxy)

APOD.NASA.gov ^ | 12 Mar, 2021 | Image Credit & Copyright: Wissam Ayoub

[MtnClimber]

Explanation: One of the brightest galaxies in planet Earth's sky is similar in size to our Milky Way Galaxy: big, beautiful Messier 81. Also known as NGC 3031 or Bode's galaxy for its 18th century discoverer, this grand spiral can be found toward the northern constellation of Ursa Major, the Great Bear. The sharp, detailed telescopic view reveals M81's bright yellow nucleus, blue spiral arms, pinkish starforming regions, and sweeping cosmic dust lanes. Some dust lanes actually run through the galactic disk (left of center), contrary to other prominent spiral features though. The errant dust lanes may be the lingering result of a close encounter between M81 and the nearby galaxy M82 lurking outside of this frame. M81's faint, dwarf irregular satellite galaxy, Holmberg IX, can be seen just below the large spiral. Scrutiny of variable stars in M81 has yielded a well-determined distance for an external galaxy -- 11.8 million light-years.

[MtnClimber]

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For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

[MtnClimber]

[MtnClimber]

Pinging the APOD list.

🪐 🌟 🌌

[left that other site]

That is one of the neater ones.

I’ve seen some that are messier.

[EvilCapitalist]

If Mark Messier has a galaxy named after him, then surely Wayne Gretzky must have one.

[blueunicorn6]

This looks like a cheeseburger on a rotating tray in a microwave spinning off purple ketchup.

[MtnClimber]

If it was a wider view I think there would be spinning cheeseburgers everywhere.

[blueunicorn6]

What a sight.....what a sight.....

[dayglored]

"My God!! It's full of cheeseburgers!!!"

[Verginius Rufus]

I wonder if our galaxy would like somewhat like M81 seen from there.

[Verginius Rufus]

Johann Elert Bode (1747-1826) is also known for "Bode's Law" (otherwise called the Titius-Bode Law), about a mathematical relationship which was noticed involving the planets' distances from the sun. At the time there was a "missing planet" between Mars and Jupiter, later filled by the discovery of Ceres. Neptune's orbit fails to conform to the pattern.

After William Herschel discovered the seventh planet in 1781, it was Bode who proposed naming it Uranus.

The asteroid Bodea is named for him. It's a bodacious asteroid.

[EvilCapitalist]

So it’s Bode who’s responsible for the 7th planet being the BUTT of jokes.

[Verginius Rufus]

I guess the naming of the 7th planet is one of those "it seemed like a good idea at the time" cases. Saturn in Roman mythology was the father of Jupiter, so Bode thought it was appropriate to name the newly-discovered planet after the father of Saturn, Uranus.

Uranus had been seen several times before by astronomers who thought it was a star. Flamsteed's star atlas of 1690 has it as 34 Tauri.

So maybe we should call the planet 34 Tauri to avoid the Uranus jokes. After all, there is no real star with the 34 Tauri label.

[mombonn]

Absolutely beautiful! It has been a long difficult day and this is a wonderful way to end it. Thank you

[MtnClimber]

I am glad you enjoyed it!

[BatGuano]

The distance that M81 is from Earth is 11.8 million light years.
That calculation in miles would be,

11,800,000 x 5,700,000,000,000 miles
Could it be 67,760,000,000,000,000? I am out of zeros.
Anyway, that is why we can see the whole galaxy.
It is very far away.