Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) — galaxy, shown live in Cosmoscope, a real-time 3D map of the universe.
An enormous, almost perfectly face-on pinwheel, lopsided from an ancient near-collision — its sprawling arms glitter with thousands of vast star-forming regions.
Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) is placed at its true position on the sky and at its real measured distance, not as a flat backdrop. Fly out from the Sun in the live 3D view and watch it change from a point of light into structure as you approach, with the scale bar showing just how far out you have travelled.