Spiral galaxy M101 in the Great Bear - Large field - Wide field view of...

Spiral galaxy M101 in the Great Bear - Large field - Wide field view of the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) - The galaxy M101 (NGC 5457) is located about 27 million years away - light from Earth. It spans more than 170,000 light years, almost double the size of our galaxy. We think that of the trillion stars in it, 100 billion stars could be similar to our Sun. In this image, other galaxies are visible: NGC 5474 (below M101), NGC 5473 (just above M101), NGC 5485 (upper left), NGC 5422 (upper center) and UGC 8837 (near star 86 uA, lower left). Image obtained by the Oschin telescope of Mount Palomar through several filters and composed. Catalogued as M101, the Pinwheel is a nice face - on spiral galaxy. It lies in the northern circumpolar constellation Ursa Major (The Big Bear), at a distance of about 25 million light - years from Earth. The bright blue star at right is 86 Uma, barely visible at the naked eye from a dark site. Also visible some other nice galaxies like NGC 5474 (below under M101), NGC 5473 (just above M101), NGC 5485 (at left edge), NGC 5422 (at top edge) and UGC 8837 (near 86 UMA, the bright star at bottom right). This image is based on data acquired by the Oschin Telescope at the Mount Palomar Observatory