Composite astrophotograph made with a Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 on a 0.9-meter telescope at the National Science Foundation1s Kitt Peak National Observatory (NOAO/AURA) in Tucson, Arizona and the Hubble Telescope with filters: f439w (B), f547m (Stromgren y), f555w (V), f656n (Ha), f814w (I)

NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), Baltimore, Maryland, United States

The Whirlpool galaxy (m51) is a giant city of stars much like our own Milky Way galaxy. This composite image, in which the majority of what is seen was photographed with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, shows the intricate spiral structure that is apparent in many large galaxies. The corners of the image were digitally composited by the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI) with archival and ground-based data collected by a team led by astronomer Keith Noll.