101 Must-See Cosmic Objects: The Whirlpool Galaxy

M51, the fabulous Whirlpool Galaxy in Canes Venatici, is the largest (in apparent diameter) and brightest face-on spiral in the night sky. It sports the iconic visage of what astronomers call a “grand-design spiral galaxy” — one that displays clearly defined and well-organized spiral structure unwinding in orderly fashion from a clear core.

Charles Messier discovered M51 on Oct. 13, 1773; the following January, he recorded it as a “very faint nebula without any stars.&rd