Astronomy Picture of the Day—20190216

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2019 February 16

IC342: The Hidden Galaxy

ImageCredit & Copyright: Arturas Medvedevas

Explanation:Similar in size to large, bright spiral galaxies in our neighborhood, IC 342 isa mere 10 million light-years distant in the long-necked, northernconstellation Camelopardalis. A sprawling island universe, IC 342 wouldotherwise be a prominent galaxy in our night sky, but it is hidden from clearview and only glimpsed through the veil of stars, gas and dust clouds along theplane of our own Milky Way galaxy. Even though IC 342's light is dimmed andreddened by intervening cosmic clouds, this sharp telescopic image traces thegalaxy's own obscuring dust, young star clusters, and glowing pink star formingregions along spiral arms that wind far from the galaxy's core. IC 342 may haveundergone a recent burst of star formation activity and is close enough to havegravitationally influenced the evolution of the local group of galaxies and theMilky Way.

IC342的大小和我们邻近的明亮巨旋涡星系相似，距离约1000万光年，位于鹿豹座。IC342原本会是我们夜空中的一个十分醒目的星系，但是它却隐藏起来，仅能透过沿着银道面的恒星、气体和尘埃云的帷幕一瞥它的真容。即使IC 342的光受到了介于中间的宇宙尘埃的暗化和红化，这幅清晰的望远镜影像仍然追踪到了这个星系旋臂的模糊尘埃、年轻星团和发光的红色恒星形成区。IC 342可能经历了最近剧烈的恒星形成活动。