Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn)  ·  Contains:  IC 4263  ·  IC 4278  ·  M 51  ·  NGC 5169  ·  NGC 5173  ·  NGC 5194  ·  NGC 5195  ·  NGC 5198  ·  Whirlpool Galaxy
The Whirlpool Galaxy - M51A and M51B, Jérémie
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The Whirlpool Galaxy - M51A and M51B

The Whirlpool Galaxy - M51A and M51B, Jérémie
Powered byPixInsight

The Whirlpool Galaxy - M51A and M51B

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Description

First picture of 2022, though I published M92 before.

This is M51, two galaxies that probably collided together half a billion years ago and are interacting under gravity, some 25 million light years away from us. They are visible in the Canes Venatici constellation.

The main one - M51A - is between 76 000 and 89 000 light years wide (between 40% and half our own Milky Way), and M51B is a dwarf galaxy, approximately 40 000 light years wide given the figures of its apparent size.

The mass of the massive black hole that lies at the core of M51A is estimated between 430 000 and 2,3 million solar masses.

M51A was discovered by Charles Messier on October 13th 1773 and M51B by Pierre Méchain on March 21st, 1781, a few years later.

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