Tags: Galaxy.
The Whirlpool Galaxy (also known as Messier 51a M51a or NGC 5194) is an interacting grand-design spiral galaxy with a Seyfert 2 active galactic nucleus in the constellation Canes Venatici. Recently it was estimated to be 23 ± 4 million light-years from the Milky Way Galaxy but different methods yield distances between 15 and 35 million ly.
