Minex: This image of the
Pinwheel Galaxy, or
M101, combines data in the
infrared,
visible,
ultraviolet and
X-rays from four of
NASA's
space telescopes. The view shows that both young and old
stars are evenly distributed along
M101's tightly wound
spiral arms. Such composite images allow
astronomers to see how features in one part of the
light spectrum match up with those seen in other parts. It's like seeing with a regular camera, an ultraviolet camera, night-vision goggles and X-ray vision, all at once! The
Pinwheel Galaxy is in the
constellation of
Ursa Major (also known as the
Big Dipper). It is about 70 percent larger than our own
Milky Way galaxy, with a diameter of about 170,000
light-years, and sits at a distance of 21 million
light-years from
Earth. This means that the
light we're seeing in this image left the
Pinwheel Galaxy about 21 million years ago -- many millions of years before
humans ever walked the
Earth. The red colors in the image show
infrared light, as seen by the
Spitzer Space Telescope. These areas show the heat emitted by
dusty lanes in the
galaxy, where
stars are forming. The yellow component is
visible light, observed by the
Hubble Space Telescope. Most of this light comes from
stars, and they trace the same spiral structure as the dust lanes seen in the infrared. The blue areas show
ultraviolet light, given out by hot,
young stars that formed about 1 million years ago. The
Galaxy Evolution Explorer, which
NASA recently loaned to the
California Institute of Technologyin
Pasadena,
California, captured this component of the image. Finally, the hottest areas are shown in purple, where the
Chandra X-ray Observatory observed the
X-rayemission from
exploded stars, million-degree
gas and material colliding around, Photo credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESA/STScI/CXC,
black holes.
Source: Minex