Pinwheel Galaxy

		M101 is an extremely large "Grand Design" spiral galaxy. Even at a distance of 27 million light years away, it still sprawls its 170,000 light year diameter across a large patch of sky. This image only shows the central third of its countenance. Many of the bright star forming regions in the spiral arms have their own NGC designations. Also note the myriad of background galaxies that can be seen in various places through the disk.