The sprawling and hypnotically symmetrical 'whirlpool galaxy' Messier 51 is so large and so bright that even at its vast distance away, somewhere between 23 and 31 million light-years from Earth, even ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. On Oct. 13, 1773, a French astronomer named Charles Messier discovered the "whirlpool galaxy," also known as Messier 51, or M51.

NASA has discovered one of the first exoplanets outside the Milky Way Galaxy, and it is using the Chandra X-Ray Observatory in partnership with the European Space Union's XMM-Newton. The new planet ...