APOD 4.4

This photo is about M101, which is a massive spiral galaxy that lies about 25 million light years away in the constellation Ursa Major. The sheer size of this galaxy is breathtaking, it is over twice the size of our own Milky Way Galaxy, or about 170,000 light years across. The amount of stars that our contained in this galaxy is equally astounding as it contains many more stars than our own and therefore greatly increases the possibility that it contains planets that are suitable to life or perhaps even planets that already have life forms on them. Galaxies such as this one provide much hope that there could be life other than our own.