Spiral Galaxy M100

This photogenic celestial object, the magnificent spiral galaxy M100, is seen here as observed with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3, which was installed during the last space shuttle servicing mission to Hubble in May 2009. The M100 photo was taken a few months later and was exhibited to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Hubble's 25th anniversary of the first servicing mission, which fixed Hubble's originally blurred vision. M100 was also captured with Hubble's flawed vision in 1993. M100 is designated a grand-design spiral galaxy because of its two prominent lanes of young, blue stars. This is caused by ripples of matter in the stellar disk that propagate through the galaxy and create high-density regions of gas. These denser areas precipitate new star formation. In addition, clearly visible are two tightly wound, inner spiral arms wrapping around the core where there is a small bar pattern of stars. The yellowish color of the inner region is from older populations of stars.