Description:
M101, or the Pinwheel Galaxy, is a large face-on spiral galaxy about 21 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. It's a grand design spiral, meaning its arms are clearly defined and rich in star-forming regions.
Roughly twice the size of the Milky Way, M101 spans 170,000 light-years and contains around a trillion stars. It features bright blue arms filled with young stars and large HII regions like NGC 5461, where intense star formation occurs.
It has several companion galaxies, which may have distorted its shape slightly. SN 2023ixf, a Type II supernova, was famously observed here in 2023.