Peering deep into the dim edges of the distorted Pinwheel Galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major (the Great Bear), astronomers at Case Western Reserve University and their colleagues have discovered a faint dwarf galaxy and another possible young dwarf caught before it had a chance to form any stars. The Pinwheel Galaxy. Image Credit & [continue reading]
January 11, 2012 The Pinwheel Galaxy, a Grand Design spiral in Ursa Major Image Credit & Copyright: Robert Gendler (http://www.robgendlerastropics.com) The Pinwheel Galaxy (also known as Messier 101 or NGC 5457) is a giant asymmetrical spiral galaxy of about 170,000 light-years across (what makes it one of the largest disk galaxies known), located 21 – [continue reading]