NGC 2404

This is NGC 2404, an unnamed galaxy, part of the M81 group. It’s an intermediate spiral galaxy, that means it’s a cross between a barred spiral galaxy, a spiral galaxy with its core stretched out into a bar, and a spiral galaxy, one without any stretching of the core.

This galaxy is really interesting because it’s pretty young, those pink dots you see aren’t a mistake, they are ionized hydrogen dust clouds and are an active area of star formation.

This galaxy is around 50,000 light-years across and is 8 million light-years away.