The Whirlpool Galaxy

The Whirlpool Galaxy is a spiral galaxy located approximately 23.16 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Canes Venatici. Its coordinates in the sky are right ascension 202.470° and declination 47.195°, and it is catalogued in the Messier.

The light reaching Earth from The Whirlpool Galaxy today left the galaxy roughly 23.16 million years ago. What you see in telescope imagery is a snapshot of the galaxy as it appeared before most of Earth’s mammalian history.

Through the Galactic Registry, you can symbolically dedicate The Whirlpool Galaxy in a name, memory, or message of your choosing. Your dedication is filed permanently in our public registry and printed on an archival 12″×18″ cotton-stock certificate, shipped worldwide. This is not an official IAU renaming — only the International Astronomical Union can officially name celestial bodies — but it is a permanent symbolic act tied to a galaxy that demonstrably exists, can be pointed at from any observatory on Earth, and has been imaged by NASA, ESA, or a ground-based telescope.