Explore NGC 2442: A Spiral Galaxy in the Flying Fish Constellation

Discover the captivating spiral galaxy, NGC 2442, nestled 50 million light-years away from our planet in the constellation known as the Flying Fish. This astronomical marvel exhibits a rather uncomplicated structure, revealed in remarkable detail in this composite imagery produced by integrating data collected from the Hubble Space Telescope and the European Southern Observatory (ESO).

At the galaxy's heart, lies a compact core exhibiting a yellowish hue, an indication of the extremely ancient stars within. The core houses a rectangular-shaped bar intersecting it, harboring numerous bands of dust, visible as brown streaks.

Emerging from the bar's extremities are two elongated, well-delineated spiral arms. The upper arm exhibits a slight distortion, an aftermath of an interplay with a neighboring galaxy, although not depicted in this image. The spiral arms are a vibrant spectacle of color; the blue signifies nascent stars in their formation stage, pink represents nebulae - the stellar nurseries, while brown indicates the presence of cosmic dust.

Image Credits: Hubble, ESO, R. Gendler, R. Colombari.