A Pinwheel Galaxy Rainbow
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/STScI/CXC
This image of Messier 101, also known as the Pinwheel Galaxy or M101, combines data in the infrared, visible, ultraviolet and X-rays from Spitzer and three other NASA space telescopes: Hubble, the Galaxy Evolution Explorer's Far Ultraviolet detector (GALEX) and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. The galaxy is about 70% larger than our own Milky Way, with a diameter of about 170,000 light-years, and sits at a distance of 21 million light-years from Earth.
The red colors in the image show infrared light, as seen by Spitzer. These areas show light emitted by dusty lanes in the galaxy where stars are forming. The yellow component is visible light, observed by Hubble. Most of this light comes from stars, and they trace the same spiral structure as the dust lanes seen in the infrared. The blue areas are ultraviolet light, given off by hot, young stars that formed about 1 million years ago and that were observed by GALEX. The hottest areas are shown in purple, where Chandra observed the X-ray emission from exploded stars, million-degree gas and material colliding around black holes.
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