Astronomy Picture of the Day ·

Panorama of the Whale Galaxy

The Astronomy Picture of the Day for May 17, 2010 is “Panorama of the Whale Galaxy,” an image. It is credited to Credit: Data – Hubble Legacy Archive , ESA , NASA Processing – Nikolaus Sulzenauer. The original explanation runs about 134 words.

Panorama of the Whale Galaxy
Credit: Data – Hubble Legacy Archive , ESA , NASA Processing – Nikolaus Sulzenauer Shown from science.nasa.gov. Not hosted by OpenOrbit.

From the explanation

“The see the full length of this blue whale, scroll right. NGC 4631 is a big beautiful spiral galaxy seen edge-on at only about 30 million light-years away.”

— APOD editors, May 17, 2010

Read the full explanation on science.nasa.gov

At a glance

Date
May 17, 2010
Type
Image
Credit
Credit: Data – Hubble Legacy Archive , ESA , NASA Processing – Nikolaus Sulzenauer
Copyright
No copyright notice on the entry. Check the credited institution’s own usage rules before reusing it.
Explanation length
About 134 words

All of May 2010 → · 2010 by month → · Full archive since 1995 →

Topics in this entry

The Milky WayGalaxies

Topics are matched from words in the title and explanation.

On this day: May 17 in other years

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Source

Copy taken Oct 28, 2026, 2:39 AM EDT. The image and explanation belong to their creators. OpenOrbit is not affiliated with or endorsed by NASA.