Just Beautiful!
M51 Galaxy - Estimated to be about 30 million light years from earth. I reprocessed this image and added more recently obtained data to existing data.
M51 Galaxy, or Whirlpool Galaxy, and NGC5195 it's companion above M51. Estimated distance 30 million light years away. Estimated diameter is 76,000 light-years.
It is believed a large black hole resides at the galaxy core. Also barely visible is Galaxy IC 4278, seen as a tiny hazy patch, 3/4 of the way up on the left side of the image.
The Whirlpool Galaxy is the brightest member of the M51 Group, a relatively small group of galaxies that also includes Sunflower Galaxy (M63) and the fainter edge-on spirals NGC 5023 and NGC 5229.
(Messier 51b), a dwarf galaxy connected to its larger neighbor by a tidal bridge of dust. Three supernovae have been observed in M51 to date: SN 1994 in April 1994, SN 2005cs in June 2005, and SN 2011 on May 31, 2011.
75x1mn 30x2mn
RA 13hr 29' 57" DEC 47º 12' 02
Galactic measles.