Astronomy Picture of the Day

   [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                              2024 December 13
    [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest
                        resolution version available.

                    M51: Tidal Streams and H-alpha Cliffs
        Image Credit & [3]Copyright: [4]The Deep Sky Collective - Tim
                                 Schaeffer,
    Carl Björk, Steeve Body, Fabian Neyer, Aki Jain, Ryan Wierckx, Paul
                Kent, Brian Valente, Antoine & Dalia Grelin,
     Nicolas Puig, Stephen Guberski, Mike Hamende, Julian Shapiro, John
            Dziuba, Mikhail Vasilev, Bogdan Borz, Adrien Keijzer

   Explanation: An intriguing pair of interacting galaxies, M51 is [5]the
   51st entry in Charles Messier's famous catalog. Perhaps the [6]original
   spiral nebula, the large galaxy with whirlpool-like spiral structure
   seen nearly face-on is also cataloged as NGC 5194. Its [7]spiral arms
   and dust lanes sweep in front of its smaller companion galaxy, [8]NGC
   5195. Some 31 million light-years distant, within the boundaries of the
   well-trained constellation [9]Canes Venatici, M51 looks faint and fuzzy
   to the eye in direct telescopic views. [10]But this remarkably deep
   image shows off stunning details of the galaxy pair's striking colors
   and fainter [11]tidal streams. The image includes extensive narrowband
   data to highlight a vast reddish cloud of ionized hydrogen gas recently
   [12]discovered in the M51 system and known to some as the [13]H-alpha
   cliffs. Foreground dust clouds in the Milky Way and distant background
   galaxies are captured in the wide-field view. A continuing
   [14]collaboration of astro-imagers using telescopes on planet Earth
   assembled over 3 weeks of exposure time to create this evolving
   portrait of M51.

                  Watch: [15]The 2024 Geminid Meteor Shower
                       Tomorrow's picture: deep diving
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    Authors & editors: [27]Robert Nemiroff ([28]MTU) & [29]Jerry Bonnell
                                 ([30]UMCP)
          NASA Official: Amber Straughn [31]Specific rights apply.
              [32]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
                A service of: [33]ASD at [34]NASA / [35]GSFC,
                         [36]NASA Science Activation
                           & [37]Michigan Tech. U.

References

   1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
   2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2412/M51_HaLRGB_APOD2048.jpg
   3. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply
   4. https://deepskycollective.com/home
   5. http://messier.obspm.fr/m/m051.html
   6. http://messier.seds.org/more/m051_rosse.html
   7. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/messier-51-the-whirlpool-galaxy
   8. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130831.html
   9. http://www.hawastsoc.org/deepsky/cvn/index.html
  10. https://www.astrobin.com/5nb17v/
  11. https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015ApJ...800L...3W/abstract
  12. https://arxiv.org/abs/1804.01699
  13. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen-alpha
  14. https://deepskycollective.com/gallery
  15. https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/everything-you-need-to-know-geminid-meteor-shower/
  16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap241212.html
  17. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
  18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html
  19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html
  20. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html
  22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss
  23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html
  24. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html
  25. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=241213
  26. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap241214.html
  27. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  28. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  29. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  30. http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  31. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  32. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  33. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  34. https://www.nasa.gov/
  35. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  36. https://science.nasa.gov/learners
  37. http://www.mtu.edu/