ANTARIKSA — The 24th night of Ramadan will be treated to a dazzling phenomenon in the distant sky. The spiral staircase-shaped galaxy, also known as Messier 51, will be visible for most of the night, Friday, April 14, 2023.
Tonight will offer skygazers everywhere the chance to see an extraordinary and awe-inspiring cosmic object. The Whirlpool Galaxy or Galaxy Whirlpool will be in a precise location in the night sky over the next few weeks. However, according In the Skythe galaxy will take the shape of a spiral staircase and reach its highest point in the sky around midnight tonight.
Therefore, there is nothing to lose for Muslims who are in Itikaf at the mosque or at home looking at the sky tonight. Moreover, for those who are looking forward to a special and sacred night, the night of lailatul qadar.
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The galaxy, which has an alternative designation NGC 5194, was first discovered in October 1773 by Charles Messier. At a distance of 31 million light years from Earth in the constellation Canes Venatici, M51 will be dim to a magnitude of just 8.4, meaning it will be invisible to the naked eye.
The Whirlpool Galaxy should be observable with a pair of binoculars or a small telescope under good viewing conditions with a dark sky and clear weather. To find Galaxy Whirlpool tonight, it may be easiest to find Ursa Major, home of the Big Dipper. The galaxy will be just northeast of the last star in the Dipper’s handle, Alkaid.
However, it would take an instrument with real observing power to see the 76,900 light-year-wide galaxy M51 in its full glory. For example, when astronomers look at M51 with the Hubble Space Telescope, they can see extraordinary arms of stars and galactic gas, the most striking features of spiral galaxies like this one.
These spiral arms are not only an aesthetic feature, but as these waves of increased density pass through the star and gas, the gas becomes denser and this triggers star formation. Astronomers think that M51’s spiral arms may be particularly prominent due to its close encounter with a nearby dense galaxy, NGC 5195.
This little yellow galaxy has been sailing through this cosmic whirlpool for hundreds of millions of years and appears to be tugging at one of M51’s arms. This galactic attraction also triggers star formation. Source: Space.com
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