The small constellatio Triangulumin the northern sky harborsthis magnificent face-on spiral galaxy, M33.Its popular names include the Pinwheel Galaxy or justthe Triangulum Galaxy.M33's diameter spans over 50,000 light-years, making it third largest inthe LocalGroup of galaxies after the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), and ourown Milky Way.About 3 million light-years from the Milky Way, M33lies very close to the Andromeda Galaxy an observersin these two galaxies would likely have spectacular views ofeach other's grand spiral star systems.As for the view from planet Earth, thi sharp27 frame mosaic of M33 nicely shows off blue star clustersand pinkish star forming regions which trace the galaxy'sloosely wound spiral arms.In fact, the cavernous NGC 604 is the brighteststar forming region seen here, visiblealong an arm arcing above and to the rightof the galaxy center.Like M31, M33's population of well-measured variable starshave helped make this nearby spiral cosmicyardstick fo establishingthe distance scale of the Universe.
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