The dust of the Whirlpool Galaxy in infrared
How are spiral galaxies? To find out, the Hubble Space Telescope observed the near infrared and photogenic M51 spiral so reveal the dust itself allows to track the most dense able to form stars gas. To better distinguish dust, most of the visible light from the stars was removed digitally. The resulting image shows large-scale swirling patterns, while many brilliant concentrations visible smaller scale correspond to open previously hidden star clusters. To see the image in the visible here. A simple pair of binoculars is sufficient to guess the sketch of the Whirlpool Galaxy in the constellation of the Hunting Dogs (Canes Venatici). M51 is about 30 million light years from us, and this image covers an area of about 15 000 light-years from the bottom up. Astronomers believe that the spiral structure of M51 is primarily due to its gravitational interaction with a smaller neighboring galaxy.
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