Stellar population of the interacting  galaxies M51.

Egor Tikhonov and Olga Galazutdinova.


Stellar photometry of about one million stars in the system of the
interacting galaxies M51 has been carried out on the basis of the ACS images
of the Hubble Space telescope. The distance to the system has been determined and
metallicity along the NGC 5194 radius has been measured. A comparison of the
stellar distribution in the main galaxy NGC 5194 with the empirical model of
the distribution of stars showed their similarity, in spite of interaction
in the system. It has been discovered that the "feathers", arising as a
result of the interaction, consist of stars of intermediate age.