Whirlpool Galaxy

alternate designation

Messier 51a

companion

NGC 5195

discovery

What later became known as the Whirlpool Galaxy was discovered on October 13, 1773, by Charles Messier while hunting for objects that could confuse comet hunters, and was designated in Messier’s catalogue as M51.

distance

The Whirlpool Galaxy lies at a distance of 23 to 31 million light-years from Earth.

galaxy of

Canes Venatici

Hubble Space Telescope

labeled as M51

NGC 5195

NGC 5195 (also known as Messier 51b or M51b) is a dwarf galaxy that is interacting with the Whirlpool Galaxy (also known as M51a or NGC 5194).

random

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tags

galaxy

visibility

Wikidata

https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q13957

Wikipedia

Whirlpool Galaxy (Wikipedia) The Whirlpool Galaxy, also known as Messier 51a (M51a) or NGC 5194, is an interacting grand-design spiral galaxy with a Seyfert 2 active galactic nucleus. It lies in the constellation Canes Venatici, and was the first galaxy to be classified as a spiral galaxy. It is 7.22 megaparsecs (23.5 million light-years) away and 23.58 kiloparsecs (76,900 ly) in diameter.