Whirlpool Galaxy

If you have been reading my blog, you have probably noticed my interest in galaxies; the Whirlpool Galaxy is no exception.  Scientists consider this to be one of our closer neighbors since it is twenty-five million light years away from our own Milky Way ("Whirlpool Galaxy Facts").  Because of is close proximity, it was one of the first galaxies to be designated as a spiral galaxy ("Whirlpool Galaxy Facts").  It is approximately seventy-five thousand light years across and has greater than one hundred billion stars ("Whirlpool Galaxy Facts").  Something pretty unique about the Whirlpool Galaxy that I found incredibly interesting was that it had collided with one of its neighboring galaxies, M51b, which is considered to be a dwarf, irregular galaxy ("Whirlpool Galaxy Facts").  Due to this collision, M51b is difficult to classify because the Whirlpool Galaxy seems to be destroying it.  Also, the Whirlpool Galaxy's outer spirals were disrupted by the collision, and it has had a spike in starbirth ("Whirlpool Galaxy Facts").  Another interesting fact about the Whirlpool Galaxy is that it has a massive black hole at its core.  Although this is not unique, the Whirlpool Galaxy's black hole is said to be active, which gave it its classification of a "Seyfert Galaxy" ("Whirlpool Galaxy Facts").  Seyfert galaxies make up about ten percent of the galaxies in the universe so far; they are when the galaxy produces nuclei spectral line emissions due to highly ionized gas from extremely large black holes ("Seyfert Galaxies"). The picture below is from the Harvard MicroObservatory; the Whirlpool Galaxy and its smaller neighbor, M51b, can be seen in the bottom right corner of the picture.  Sorry for the blurriness and awkward brightness of the picture!

"Seyfert Galaxies." Seyfert Galaxies / Galaxy / Seyfert's Sextet. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2015.
"Whirlpool Galaxy Facts." Space Facts. N.p., 01 May 2015. Web. 26 Nov. 2015.

Taken by the Harvard MicroObservatory 11/26/15