Spiral Galaxy M101 Framed Print

Giant galaxies weren't assembled in a day. Neither was this Hubble Space Telescope image of the face-on spiral galaxy Messier 101 (M101). It is the largest and most detailed photo of a spiral galaxy that has ever been released from Hubble. The galaxy's portrait is actually composed of 51 individual Hubble exposures, in addition to elements from images from ground-based photos.

The giant spiral disk of stars, dust, and gas is 170,000 light-years across or nearly twice the diameter of our galaxy, the Milky Way. M101 is estimated to contain at least one trillion stars. Approximately 100 billion of these stars could be like our Sun in terms of temperature and lifetime.

M101 (also nicknamed the Pinwheel Galaxy) lies in the northern circumpolar constellation, Ursa Major (The Great Bear), at a distance of 25 million light-years from Earth. Therefore, we are seeing the galaxy as it looked 25 million years ago � when the light we're receiving from it now was emitted by...

My name is Adam Mateo Fierro, a fine art landscape photographer, and my mission is to capture the grandeur of our world with technical excellence and artistic vision. I hope to inspire you with wonder and a sense of awe at the beauty found in the many serene lakes, flowing rivers, and rugged mountains I have photographed; from sunrise to sunset, I have been fortunate to capture the splendor of light dancing across the diverse landscapes of the natural world. Thank you for visiting. InfiniteGrandeur.com