2024 April 06 - Unwinding M51
Channel: APOD Podcast
Date: 2024-04-06

In today's image, we see the spiral galaxy known as M51. In this image, the spiral arms have been digitally modified to unwind them using logarithms. The ordinary spiral arms form a logarithmic spiral which can be unwound digitally giving the ams a straight line appearance. 

This YouTube channel is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website directly at: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240406.html.

I also provide lecture videos to accompany the free OpenStax Astronomy textbook (https://openstax.org/details/books/astronomy/) on another channel. They are avilable here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMahwAGxKuWldeQ_qaIj8c0i7qbfyfLj4 or through this channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLXFGlTeF86MsI1HqBcuqKQ

Note: All commentary is created by me and is not necessarily approved or sanctioned by APOD or NASA.