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French astronomer Charles Messier discovered the Whirlpool Galaxy (pictured), an interacting, grand design spiral galaxy located an estimated 31 million light-years away.
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Charles Messier
18th- and 19th-century French astronomer
Charles Messier was a French astronomer. He published an astronomical catalogue consisting of 110 nebulae and star clusters, which came to be known as the Messier objects, referred to with the letter M and their number between 1 and 110. Messier's purpose for the catalogue was…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Whirlpool Galaxy
Galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici
The Whirlpool Galaxy, also known as Messier 51a (M51a) or NGC 5194, is an interacting grand-design spiral galaxy with a Seyfert 2 active galactic nucleus. It lies in the constellation Canes Venatici, and was the first galaxy to be classified as a spiral galaxy. It is 31 million…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Interacting galaxy
Galaxies with interacting gravitational fields
Interacting galaxies are galaxies whose gravitational fields result in a disturbance of one another. Major mergers occur between galaxies with similar amounts of mass, whereas minor mergers involve galaxies with masses that vary significantly. An example of a minor interaction…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Grand design spiral galaxy
Spiral galaxy with prominent and well-defined spiral arms
A grand design spiral galaxy is a spiral galaxy with prominent and well-defined continuous spiral arms, as opposed to multi-arm, patchy and flocculent spirals which have subtler structural features. The spiral arms of a grand design galaxy extend clearly around the galaxy,…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)