Imagine this dazzling object rotating in the skyΓÇöit is easy to see why it is often called the Pinwheel Galaxy. Located 2.4 million light years away in the constellation Triangulum, M33 is the second closest spiral galaxy to the Milky Way. Indeed, it is so close one can actually resolve individual objects (emission nebulae, variable stars, and blue supergiants) among the ten segments of its spiral arms. The chaotic dark areas are dust lanes. In many spiral galaxies, the dust is confined to the inner sides of the arms, but M33ΓÇÖs dust lanes are scattered throughout.
