M33 Triangulum Galaxy
Located in the constellation of Triangulum, the Triangle, the Triangulum Galaxy is a nearby face-on spiral galaxy. Also known as M33, it is over thirty thousand light-years across, and more than two million light-years away. M33, our galaxy and the Andromeda Galaxy (also known as M31) are the three major galaxies of our corner of the Universe, a small group of galaxies known as The Local Group. However, M33 is only about 10% the size of M31 and our Galaxy. This image of the Triangulum Galaxy was created by combining optical data with radio data from the Very Large Array (VLA) telescope in New Mexico and the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) in the Netherlands. The area shown in this image is quite large, appearing to be over five times the size of the full Moon.
| Observatory: | WIYN Observatory Kitt Peak, Arizona |
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| Telescope: | WIYN 0.9-Meter |
| Instrument: | Mosaic I |
| Astronomer: | T.A. Rector (NRAO/AUI/NSF and NOAO/AURA/NSF), David Thilker (NRAO/AUI/NSF) and Robert Braun (WSRT/NFRA) |
| Date of Observation: | 01-12-2001 |
| Filters and Assigned Colors: | B (blue), V (green), I (orange) and Hydrogen-Alpha (red) in optical and 21cm HI (violet) in radio |
| Exposure Times: | 5x5 minutes in each optical filter |
| Location of Image: | Triangulum |
| Field of View: | 59 x 59 arcminutes |
| Orientation: | North is up, East is to the left |
| Link to Larger Image | |
| Link to Full Resolution Image | |
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