M100ΓÇölocated in the constellation Coma Bernices, around 48 million light years awayΓÇöis the largest spiral galaxy in the Virgo Cluster. These images from the Hubble Space Telescope show details of this elegant two-armed spiral impossible to see with Earth-bound instruments. The blue light is from dense young stars that formed along the galaxyΓÇÖs spiral arms. The pink regions are immense clouds of hydrogen gas where stars are forming. If one looks closely, even individual stars and filaments of dark dust in the armsΓÇÖ outer regions can be seen.
The larger of the two images is a composite of photographs taken with the wide field instruments on the Hubble telescope; the
