Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Whirlpool Galaxy and NGC 5195

 
The Whirlpool Galaxy is an interacting grand-design spiral galaxy located at a distance of approximately 23 million light-years in the constellation Canes Venatici. The galaxy and its companion NGC 5195 are easily observed by amateur astronomers, and the two galaxies may even be seen with binoculars. The Whirlpool Galaxy is also a popular target for professional astronomers, who study it to further understand galaxy structure and galaxy interactions.
Reason
Hight resolution, very encyclopedic, pleasing to the eye, doesn't suffer from the grain most astronomical images do (dots are stars). Demonstrates multiple points in one picture, Shows galaxy interactions, and two types of galaxies (spiral galaxy and dwarf galaxy).
Articles this image appears in
Logarithmic spiral, H II region, Whirlpool Galaxy, NGC 5195, M51 Group, List of spiral galaxies
Creator
HST/NASA/ESA

Promoted Image:Messier51.jpg --KFP (talk | contribs) 10:21, 23 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]