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                           Astronomy Picture of the Day   
      
       Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our   
         fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation   
                       written by a professional astronomer.   
      
                                 2024 December 13   
      
                       M51: Tidal Streams and H-alpha Cliffs   
        Image Credit & Copyright: The Deep Sky Collective - Tim Schaeffer,   
        Carl Bj++rk, Steeve Body, Fabian Neyer, Aki Jain, Ryan Wierckx, Paul   
                   Kent, Brian Valente, Antoine & Dalia Grelin,   
        Nicolas Puig, Stephen Guberski, Mike Hamende, Julian Shapiro, John   
               Dziuba, Mikhail Vasilev, Bogdan Borz, Adrien Keijzer   
      
      Explanation: An intriguing pair of interacting galaxies, M51 is the   
      51st entry in Charles Messier's famous catalog. Perhaps the original   
      spiral nebula, the large galaxy with whirlpool-like spiral structure   
      seen nearly face-on is also cataloged as NGC 5194. Its spiral arms and   
      dust lanes sweep in front of its smaller companion galaxy, NGC 5195.   
      Some 31 million light-years distant, within the boundaries of the   
      well-trained constellation Canes Venatici, M51 looks faint and fuzzy to   
      the eye in direct telescopic views. But this remarkably deep image   
      shows off stunning details of the galaxy pair's striking colors and   
      fainter tidal streams. The image includes extensive narrowband data to   
      highlight a vast reddish cloud of ionized hydrogen gas recently   
      discovered in the M51 system and known to some as the H-alpha cliffs.   
      Foreground dust clouds in the Milky Way and distant background galaxies   
      are captured in the wide-field view. A continuing collaboration of   
      astro-imagers using telescopes on planet Earth assembled over 3 weeks   
      of exposure time to create this evolving portrait of M51.   
      
                       Watch: The 2024 Geminid Meteor Shower   
                          Tomorrow's picture: deep diving   
        __________________________________________________________________   
      
          Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)   
               NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.   
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                         A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,   
                              NASA Science Activation   
                                & Michigan Tech. U.   
      
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