M81: A Bulging Spiral Galaxy
Few stars are still forming in the old giant spiral galaxy M81. The blue
regions
in this picture - representing
ultraviolet light -
highlight regions of bright
young stars and star formation and appear rare than in
M74 and
M33. The
red regions - representing the visible light - show a large population of
older, less massive stars.
M81
is therefore classified as
spiral galaxy
type "Sab" on the
Hubble Sequence of Galaxies. One distinguishing feature
of these types of galaxies is the relatively large central bulge
surrounding the center of the galaxy. A massive
density wave circulates
around the center of spiral galaxies. It is not well understood why the
bulge of
M81
glows as bright as it does in ultraviolet light. Speculation
includes that this may be due to hot evolved stars such as those found in
the ancient globular cluster
Omega Centauri.