Explanation:
Grand spiral galaxies
often seem to get all the glory, flaunting
their young, bright, blue star clusters in beautiful,
symmetric spiral arms.
But small, irregular galaxies form stars too.
In fact
dwarf galaxy IC 2574 shows
clear evidence
of intense star forming activity in its telltale pinkish
regions of glowing hydrogen gas.
Just as in spiral galaxies, the
turbulent star-forming regions
in IC 2574 are churned by
stellar winds and
supernova explosions spewing material into the
galaxy's interstellar medium and
triggering further star formation.
A mere 12 million light-years distant, IC 2574 is part of the
M81 group of galaxies, seen toward the northern
constellation Ursa Major.
Also known as Coddington's Nebula, the lovely
island universe
is about 50,000 light-years across, discovered by
American astronomer Edwin Coddington in 1898.
