Bruce Murray Space Image Library

M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy

M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy
M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy On July 14, 2011, Deep Impact turned its Medium Resolution Imager toward M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy, and took 65 photos. This image is composed of six clear-filter exposures, stacked to reduce the noise from cosmic ray hits. NASA / JPL / UMD / processed by Emily Lakdawalla