Vortex (M 74)
This image of NGC 628 (M-74) was obtained by the 8.1-meter Gemini North Telescope on Mauna Kea Hawaii using the newly commissioned Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph. This conspicuous spiral is a prototype of a grand-design spiral galaxy. Its distance may be about 30 to 40 million light years as it recedes with 793 km/sec. Then its spiral arms are about 1000 light years broad. They are traced with clusters of blue young stars and pinkish colored diffuse gaseous nebulae reach out to cover a region of more than 10 minutes of arc in diameter, corresponding to roughly 95,000 light years, or about the same size as our Milky Way galaxy.