APOD

Astronomy Picture of the Day

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.

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

Explanation: “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 Milky Way foreground has led to misunderstandings in IC 342’s history, including the theory that the galaxy was ejected from the Local Group. IC 342 has its own dust intermittently blocking the glow of hydrogen gas, indicating the presence of bright, young stars. Magnetic field maps of IC 342 reveal that magnetic fields may contribute substantially to one of the biggest galactic puzzles: how do spiral arms form?

Tomorrow’s picture: open space

Date:	November 4, 2026
Credit & Copyright:	Artem Mironov
Authors & editors:	Keighley Rockcliffe, Robert Nemiroff, Jerry Bonnell, Cecilia Chirenti
A service of:	ASD at NASA / GSFC, NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U.