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Recent picture of the day

NASA APOD · 4 Nov 2026

The face of a spiral galaxy fills the image. The galaxy has a bright yellow-ish center. A handful of large arms spiral outward from the center. Bubbles of red glowing gas and tendrils of dark dust trace the spiral arms. Foreground stars and background galaxies are sprinkled across the image.

The Not-So-Hidden Galaxy, IC 342

“I see” IC 342, the Hidden Galaxy! Today’s image peers through the plane of the Milky Way, through all its gas, dust and stars, to unveil this spiral galaxy. IC 342 (or Caldwell 5) is one of the brightest members of the IC 342/Maffei group of galaxies. Located about 10 million light years away, this group is quite close to the Local Group that includes our Milky Way. Inaccurate accounting of the crowded and dusty Mil... Read more on APOD

Image: Artem Mironov · Astronomy Picture of the Day (NASA, Michigan Tech)