Whirlpool, It's Not Just an Appliance! Quiz

Answer: Question Mark Galaxy

It's also known as Rosse's Galaxy after William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse; NGC 5194 and subsequently Messier 51, 51a (used as separate galaxies interacting with each other.) The Whirlpool Galaxy was discovered by Charles Messier in 1773.

Answer: Spiral

There are three main components to a Spiral Galaxy: the bulge, which is a spherical formation found in the center of the galaxy. The halo is located encircling the bulge. Then there's the disk which encompasses some of the halo, around the edges. The bulge has older stars while the halo is filled with globular clusters.

The disk has younger stars and is also made up of dust and gas. Lenticular galaxies are a rarer subtype; they are in the middle between elliptical and spiral in shape.

Answer: A black hole

This conjecture has been made by NASA in 1992 based on an image taken of the Whirlpool Galaxy that the center is a black hole. The image has been famous as "X marks the spot". The "x" is a silhouette that appears across the galaxy's nucleus and results from the redistribution of gas, dust and stars caused by the black hole's gravity.

Answer: Approximately 23 million light years

A recent estimate was determined in 2011 to be 23 million light years based off a supernova witnessed on May 31, 2011. Galactic distances are measured by various techniques, most often relying on the apparent brightness of objects and events with a known absolute brightness such as a supernova.

This has a significant span of error; estimates from various measurements often differ by as much as 30%.

Answer: Dwarf Galaxy

Referred to as NGC 5195 (Messier 51b, M51b) discovered in 1781 by Pierre Méchain (1744-1804). M51b is connected to the Whirlpool by a dust-rich tidal bridge. The structure of that galaxy is not yet known, some astronomers consider it to be an amorphous. It also seems to be trailing behind the Whirlpool Galaxy in galactic movement.

Answer: How galaxies and black holes interact with interstellar gas

The team was led by Dr. Aaron Watkins. He and his team found that there was no star formation within the gas cloud. The gas cloud was likely expelled from one of the Whirlpool Galaxy's neighbors and is being drawn towards the Whirlpool's center, interacting with and gradually being consumed by its central black hole.

Answer: 100 billion

It is estimated that there are 100 billion stars in the Whirlpool galaxy. The Milky Way is also estimated to have about 100 billion stars. It's actually very difficult to know how many stars are in a galaxy. The road to finding out is estimation by star mass - the stellar mass of the Whirlpool has been estimated to 160 billion solar masses.

Answer: 60,000 light years

The diameter of the Whirlpool Galaxy is 60,000 ly (light years) which is smaller than the Milky Way which is 100,000 to 180,000 ly in diameter.

Answer: 12.1

Three supernovas have been observed in the Whirlpool since 1994. The first, SN 1994I, was classified as a type Ic, indicating a very massive progenitor star, and its magnitude was 12.9. The second one witnessed was SN 2005cs in June of 2005, a type II with a magnitude of 14. The one in 2011 was designated SN 2011dh; it had a blue spectrum much like P Cygni.

Answer: Canes Venatici

Canes Venatici was created by Johannes Hevelius in the 1600s. Cor Caroli is its brightest star at a magnitude of 2.89. The Giant Void is close to the constellation and is considered the largest void discovered. Canes Venatici contains five galaxies: The Whirlpool Galaxy with its companion NGC5195, The Sunflower Galaxy, M94, and M106.