IT'S A BIG WORLD !

This is Spiral Galaxy M101. It is 170,000 light years across. It contains at least 1 trillion stars. In the backgroud in this photo appear very small stars or dots. Each of these represents another galaxy with millions of stars. Yet M101 fills a region in the sky equal to only one-fifth the area of a full moon. M101 happens to be 25 million light years from the earth. Yes indeed it is a BIG world. This photo and hundreds more can be seen on Hubblesite.org To view the amazing pictures, then click gallery, then picture album, and then you have the choice of clicking entire collection, galaxies, nebulae, stars, exotic' or the universe.
The above picture actually is a composite of some 51 individual photos, taken from the Hubble Spsace Telescope over a period of ten years. This space telescope orbits around the earth beyond our atmosphere. It was placed in orbit in 1990 and is serviced in space by astronauts.