Pinwheel Galaxy (M101)

Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) — galaxy, explore its interactive 3D model in Cosmoscope.

Explore Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) in an interactive 3D view of space. See its catalogue position, distance and astronomical facts.

An enormous, almost perfectly face-on pinwheel, lopsided from an ancient near-collision — its sprawling arms glitter with thousands of vast star-forming regions.

Type

Face-on grand-design spiral

Distance

21 million light-years

Size

Nearly twice the width of the Milky Way

Shown here

Representative stars, sampled from its measured light and labelled as such: no survey resolves its stars across the disc

Glow & dust

Old stars: a 3D bulge and disc fitted to WISE infrared; young stars from GALEX; WISE dust; star-forming knots from WISE

Depth

Disc tilted 18° (measured); its thickness and depth are modelled

Explore Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) in 3D

Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) is placed in three-dimensional space using catalogue coordinates and an adopted astronomical distance. Rotate and zoom to explore the model. Stellar surfaces, gas structure and dust depths may be reconstructed or illustrative, as described in its facts; this is not live imagery from a telescope.