The galaxy Messier 101 is a swirling spiral of stars, gas, and dust. Messier 101 is nearly twice as wide as our Milky Way galaxy. Spitzer's view, taken in infrared light, reveals the galaxy's delicate dust lanes as yellow-green filaments. Such dense dust clouds are where new stars can form. In this image, dust warmed by the light of hot, young stars glows red. The rest of the galaxy's hundreds of billions of stars are less prominent and form a blue haze. Astronomers can use infrared light to examine the dust clouds where stars are born.
Credits
NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Caltech, and K. Gordon (STScI)| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | M101, NGC 4547, The Pinwheel Galaxy |
| Object Description | Face-on Spiral Galaxy |
| 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 | The science team for the Spitzer data include K. Gordon (STScI), C. Engelbracht, G. Rieke, K. Misselt, and J.-D. Smith (University of Arizona), and R. Kennicutt (University of Cambridge). |
| Instrument | Spitzer>IRAC and Spitzer>MIPS |
| Exposure Dates | Mar 8, 2004 and May 10/11, 2004 |
| Filters | 85 sec/pixel (IRAC and 200 sec/pixel (MIPS 24 micron) |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
|
| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
