New Delhi, May 15 (IANS). The world of space is as mysterious as it is beautiful. American space agency NASA has shared a spectacular view of the unique purple beauty of space. Pinwheel Galaxy is visible in this picture, which scientists also call Messier 101 i.e. M-101.
This galaxy is filled with more than one trillion or one thousand billion stars and appears in a very attractive purple color. Data from other telescopes has also been included in this picture taken by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. The galaxy appears purple and pink because Chandra’s X-ray data are shown in these colors. Scientists have created this composite image by mixing visible light and infrared wavelengths into different colors. This helps in better understanding the activities going on inside the Galaxy.
Posting the pictures on social media platform Instagram, NASA said, such composite pictures help scientists a lot in understanding the process of birth, energy and evolution of stars inside the galaxy. The Pin Wheel Galaxy is also known to have regions of active star formation. This beautiful picture shows a vast, colorful and mysterious glimpse of the universe.
Pinwheel Galaxy is a spiral shaped galaxy. It is located about 21 to 25 million light years away from Earth. Its width is 1,70,000 light years, which is almost twice that of the Milky Way Galaxy. Its spiral arms contain huge clouds of gas and dust, where new stars are forming. The hot and blue stars make these arms even brighter.
This galaxy is located in the Northern Hemisphere near the Ursa Major constellation i.e. ‘Big Dipper’. If the sky is clear and dark then it can be seen with a small telescope or binoculars. The Pin Wheel Galaxy was discovered in 1781 by Pierre Méchain, a colleague of Charles Messier. Its apparent brightness is 7.9. That means it appears blurry at night.
–IANS
MT/AS