On this day more than two centuries ago, October 13, 1773, French astronomer Charles Messier discovered a “whirlwind galaxy,” also known as Messier 51 or M51, according to the site. outer space.
Charles Messier was looking in the sky for things that might confuse comet hunters when he classified the galaxy as… Messier 51. However, Messier could not see the spiral structure and did not identify it as a galaxy.
72 years later, another astronomer named William Parsons saw the shape of the vortex but thought it was a spiral nebula. Edwin Hubble finally figured it out Messier 51 And other similar formations were actually galaxies.
Vortex Galaxy, also known as Messier 51 A a M51a a NGC 5194It is a large spiral galaxy interacting with an active galactic nucleus sv 2It was the first galaxy to be classified as a spiral.
The galaxy is 31 million light-years away from Earth, and the galaxy can be seen and accompanied NGC 5195 Astronomers can easily see these two galaxies with a telescope because the Whirlpool galaxy is often observed by professional astronomers who study it to understand the structure of the galaxy, especially the structure associated with spiral arms and galactic interactions.