Portal:Astronomy/Picture/12 August 2005

The Pinwheel Galaxy , or M101, was discovered by Pierre Méchain, on March 27, 1781, and is located between 23,790,000 or 27,000,000 light years from Earth. It is the brightest galaxy in the M101 group of galaxies, with an apparent magnitude of +7.9 and an absolute magnitude of -21.6. The Pinwheel galaxy can be found in the Ursa Major constellation, and the M101 group of galaxies. This picture was taken and released by an amateur astronomer.