Its nickname of the Southern Pinwheel derives from its resemblance to the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101).

This image of the Pinwheel Galaxy, or M101, combines data in the infrared, visible, ultraviolet and X-rays from four of NASA ’s space telescopes. The galaxy is 21 million light-years (six megaparsecs) away from us. The Pinwheel galaxy is located about 27 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. Charles Messier verified its position and included it in the Messier Catalogue as one of the last entries. The Pinwheel galaxy (Messier 101, M101 or NGC 5457) is a face-on spiral galaxy in the constellation of Ursa Major, the Great Bear.. In our own galaxy, the Milky Way, the sun is just one of about 100 to 400 billion stars that spin around Sagittarius A*, a supermassive black hole that contains as much mass as four million suns. That light was shining before humans existed on our planet. Scientists call this swirling galaxy M101.. You can find it in the constellation Ursa Major, or the "Big Dipper," in the Northern Hemisphere. Located 25 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Ursa Major, M101 has an apparent magnitude … BUT I decided to post it as a controlled starting point to look back on to compare my progression in the future. "The Pinwheel Galaxy"⁠ I was super hesitant on posting this, and was a good 80% not going to because I don't think its that great, I know I can do a lot better. This is my very first attempt at editing in a program called PixInsight. This means that the light we're seeing in this image left the Pinwheel Galaxy about 21 million years ago - many millions of years before humans ever walked the Earth. These brilliant, young stellar groupings are only a few million years old and produce huge amounts of ultraviolet light. Swift Sees Pinwheel Galaxy, Satellite Fully Operational M101 is a bright, face-on, spiral galaxy located in the constellation Ursa Major (containing the Big Dipper), about 15 million light years from Earth. Pinwheel Galaxy has an apparent magnitude of 7.86 and lies at a distance of 20.9 million light years from Earth. The Pinwheel Galaxy was discovered by the French astronomer Pierre Méchain on March 27, 1781. Sitting at a distance of 21 million light years from Earth, it is sometimes known as, Face-On Spiral … Messier 101 (M101), also known as the Pinwheel Galaxy, is a spiral galaxy located in the constellation Ursa Major, the Great Bear. It was discovered by the German astronomer Max Wolf in 1909. It was first discovered by Pierre Méchain on 27 March 1781. The galaxy is 21 million light-years (six megaparsecs) away from us.It was first discovered by Pierre Méchain on 27 March 1781.

In September 1951, we discovered the brightest supernova ever observed in the Pinwheel galaxy, dubbed SN 1951H, with a magnitude of 17.5. Messier 101 (M101), also known as the Pinwheel Galaxy, is a spiral galaxy located in the constellation Ursa Major, the Great Bear.

The Pinwheel Galaxy is about 170,000 light years in diameter, which makes it roughly 70 percent larger than our galaxy, the Milky Way.