Cosmo M51
The Whirlpool Galaxy, also known as Messier 51 (M51) or NGC 5194, is a grand-design spiral galaxy located 31 million light-years away in the constellation Canes Venatici. It’s famous for its beautiful, well-defined spiral arms, which are characterized by bright pink star-forming regions and brilliant blue star clusters. The galaxy is also interacting with a smaller companion galaxy, NGC 5195, which is influencing its structure and creating tidal features
The spiral arms are areas of intense star formation, where gas and dust are compressed and collapse to ignite new stars. This is evidenced by the bright pink regions, which are young, hot stars. At the heart of the Whirlpool Galaxy is a supermassive black hole, which is a common feature in the centres of large galaxies.
It is 15 to 37 million light-years away from Earth and is 50,000 to 100,000 light-years across.
