page_title: Whirlpool Galaxy
section_title: Properties
hierarchical_section_title: Whirlpool Galaxy / Properties
caption_attribution_description: English: Hubble Space Telescope / Advanced Camera for Surveys image of the nucleus of M51. High-level science product data from Proposal 10452 were used to create the image. This is F555W (V band) data. Photoshop was used to adjust the image brightness and contrast to better reveal fine details within the dust structure overlapping the bright nucleus.
context_page_description: The Whirlpool Galaxy, also known as Messier 51a, M51a, and NGC 5194, is an interacting grand-design spiral galaxy with a Seyfert 2 active galactic nucleus. It lies in the constellation Canes Venatici, and was the first galaxy to be classified as a spiral galaxy. Its distance is estimated to be 23 million light-years away from Earth.
  The galaxy and its companion, NGC 5195, are easily observed by amateur astronomers, and the two galaxies may be seen with binoculars. The Whirlpool Galaxy has been extensively observed by professional astronomers, who study it to understand galaxy structure and galaxy interactions.
context_section_description: Whirlpool Galaxy lies 23 million light years from Earth and has an estimated diameter of 76,000 light years. Overall the galaxy is about 43% the size of the Milky Way. Its mass is estimated to be 160 billion solar masses. or around 10.3% of the mass of Milky Way Galaxy. 
  A black hole, once thought to be surrounded by a ring of dust, but now believed to be partially occluded by dust instead, exists at the heart of the spiral. A pair of ionization cones extend from the active galactic nucleus.
caption: A 2005 Hubble image showing details of the dust at the nucleus of M51.
exif: {}