The Whirlpool Galaxy, also known as Messier 51A, M51A, and NGC 5194, is an interacting grand-design spiral galaxy with a Seyfert 2 active galactic nucleus. It lies in the constellation Canes Venatici, and was the first galaxy to be classified as a spiral galaxy. Its distance is estimated to be 31 million light-years from Earth.

Location: Hubble Space Telescope
Data Source: Hubble Legacy Archive