Flyby of The Whirlpool Galaxy in Canes Venatici | Space Telescope Science Institute FriendsofNASA.org: The Whirlpool Galaxy, also known as Messier 51, is one of the nearest and best examples of a grand design spiral galaxy. Located about 25 million light-years away, the face-on galaxy exposes the full details of its swirling structures of stars, gas, and dust. The striking symmetry of its spiral pattern may be due to a gravitational interaction with a companion dwarf galaxy, NGC 5195, not includ

Zoom on Spiral Galaxy Messier 106 in Canes Venatici | Hubble FriendsofNASA.org: This video zooms in on nearby spiral galaxy Messier 106. The sequence begins with a view of the night sky centered on M 106, with the constellation Ursa Major (the Great Bear) visible. It then zooms through observations from the Digitized Sky Survey 2, and ends with an image that combines data from Hubble with amateur observations by astrophotographers Robert Gendler and Jay GaBany. Gendler combined these images with

Messier 96: A Distorted Spiral Galaxy #Space Messier 96 is a breathtaking spiral galaxy located about 35 million light-years away in the constellation Leo. Captured by NASA & ESA’s Hubble Space Telescope, this galaxy stands out for its off-center core and uneven spiral arms, giving it the appearance of a giant cosmic maelstrom. Unlike perfectly symmetrical spiral galaxies, Messier 96 has been gravitationally distorted by interactions with nearby galaxies in the Leo I Group. These subtle but powe

Pan of Spiral Galaxy Messier 90: Best View Yet | Hubble Space Telescope FriendsofNASA.org: This striking spiral galaxy is Messier 90 (M90, also NGC 4569), located in the constellation Virgo. In 2019, an image of M90 was released using data from the older Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2—data taken in 1994 soon after the camera’s installation. That image has a distinctive stair-step pattern due to the layout of WFPC2’s sensors. WFPC2 was replaced in 2010 by the Wide Field Camera 3, and Hubble us