The Whirlpool Galaxy (outside the stellar city) Gazed by the Hubble Space Telescope

追加: 2026-06-02

The Whirlpool Galaxy (M51/NGC 5194) is a grand-design spiral galaxy located approximately 25 million light-years away in the constellation Canes Venatici, featuring two prominent spiral arms that serve as star-formation factories where hydrogen gas compresses to create new stars, progressing from dark gas clouds to pink star-forming regions to blue star clusters along the outer edges; its distinctive spiral structure is believed to result from gravitational interactions with its companion galaxy NGC 5195, which passes behind it and creates waves in the galaxy's disk that compress gas clouds and trigger star formation.