*Description*: A close cropping of spiral galaxy M101 shows an array of stunning details that may be overlooked when viewing the full image. Due to the high sensitivity and fine resolution of Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys, one can clearly see individual dust lanes in the spiral arms as easily as an aerial photo captures rivers flowing through a mountain range here on Earth. Bright, hot regions that are areas of active star formation also dot the spiral arms, akin to ground photos of the bright lights of major cities when photographed at night. Several bright stars appear in this small section of M101 (also known as the Pinwheel Galaxy). They are in our own galaxy, superimposed in the line of sight and appear much brighter than the stars within M101 because they are so much closer. So too, a background spiral galaxy, millions of light-years behind M101, appears between two spiral arms. The bright nucleus of M101 just off to the upper left appears brighter and redder than the rest of the galaxy seen in the image. Stars near the halo that surround the nucleus are older and redder compared to the blue, young, hot stars that delineate the spiral arms and populate the metropolitan-style star-forming regions. This image, a portion of the full M101 Hubble mosaic, contains only Hubble data from blue, green and infrared filters taken in November 2002. For more information, contact: K.D. Kuntz, Goddard Space Flight Center, Baltimore, Md., (phone) 301-286-1301, (e-mail) kuntz@milkyway.gsfc.nasa.gov or Keith Noll, Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md., (phone) 410-338-1828, (e-mail) noll@stsci.edu Technical facts about this news release: About the Object Object Name: M101 (NGC 5457, The Pinwheel Galaxy) Object Description: Face-on Spiral Galaxy Position (J2000): R.A. 14h 03m 13s Dec. +54° 20' 53" Constellation: Ursa Major Distance: 25 million light-years (8 Megaparsecs) About the Data Data Description: This image was created from HST data from proposals 9490: K.D. Kuntz (JHU/GSFC), P. Barmby and J.P. Huchra (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), K. Mukai, S.L. Snowden, and W.D. Pence (Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics, GSFC), and J.P. Brodie (University of California, Santa Cruz). Other proposals used include: * Fabio Bresolin (proposal 9492) * John Trauger (proposal 5210) * Jeremy Mould (proposal 5397) * You-Hou Chu (proposal 6829) The Hubble exposures have been superimposed onto ground-based images, visible at the edge of the image, taken at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in Hawaii, and at the 0.9-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory, part of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Arizona. Instrument: ACS/WFC, WFPC2 Exposure Date(s): March 1994, September 1994, June 1999, November 2002, and January 2003 Filters: F435W("B"), F555W("V"), F814W("I") About the Image Image Credit: NASA and ESA Release Date: February 28, 2006 Orientation: Hubble's Largest Galaxy Portrait Offers a New High-Definition View [ http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/2006/10/images/a/formats/compass_large_web.jpg ] What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. Giant galaxies weren?t assembled in a day. Neither was this Hubble Space Telescope image of the face-on spiral galaxy Messier 101 (M101). It is the largest and most detailed photo of a spiral galaxy that has ever been released from Hubble. The galaxy?s portrait is actually composed of 51 individual exposures taken with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys and the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 in March 1994, September 1994, June 1999, November 2002, and January 2003. The newly composed image also includes elements from images from ground-based photos. *News Release Number:*: STScI-2006-10b

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