14 DAY TRIAL // The European Space Agency is boasting about a brand new photo of the well known Pinwheel galaxy, shot with the XMM-Newton space telescope. And there's reason to boast, the photo is gorgeous.
But astronomers didn't take the shot for the sheer beauty of it, though that's always a bonus, but for the science that can be derived from the data.
The image was shot in ultraviolet, which is what XMM-Newton specializes in, and it makes for a rather different view than what we're used to with this galaxy.
The distinctive shape is still recognizable, but because the youngest stars shine brightest in ultraviolet, that's what’s the most visible here.
M101, as the Pinwheel galaxy is called by scientists, is twice as big as our own Milky Way and is situated 21 million light years away. It's 170,000 light years across and is the home of at least one billion stars.