NGC 5194 - give it some respect

[John]

NGC 5194 is the companion galaxy to Messier 51, the "Whirlpool" galaxy, in Ursa Major. It appears as a smaller spot of fuzzy light next to it's famous partner in large binocualars and scopes but it seems to be very interesting in it's own right:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-35237863

[seo]

Thanks for the info and link John.

[callump]

Strange - I always thought NGC 5194 was the main spiral galaxy of M51 (M51a), and the companion was NGC 5195. Simbad certainly thinks this to be the case...

[edit] I had a look at the abstract of the presentation and it's correct there - NGC 5195 is the companion - something must have gone wrong in the PR machine...

/callum

[John]

Strange - I always thought NGC 5194 was the main spiral galaxy of M51 (M51a), and the companion was NGC 5195. Simbad certainly thinks this to be the case...

/callum

Thats a good point. There seems to be some confusion as to which is NGC 5194 and which is 5195, depending on the source. The majority seem to refer to the larger, brighter galaxy as NGC 5194  

The BBC piece has it the other way around

To be clear, the article I've linked to refers to the smaller and dimmer of the pairing.

[laudropb]

Burnham's Handbook lists M51 as NGC 5194 and I always take this as the most reliable source.

Never the less thanks for pointing out such an interesting article.

[callump]

ha-ha - the Beeb have fixed the story now,,,

/callum

[LukeSkywatcher]

Please excuse my ignorance but i thought black holes were invisible, so how is this one visible as a white splodge in the image?

[callump]

Please excuse my ignorance but i thought black holes were invisible, so how is this one visible as a white splodge in the image?

It's the material that's heading into the black hole that's visible...

/callum