NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day for November 4 features IC 342, a spiral galaxy often called the Hidden Galaxy because the crowded, dusty foreground of the Milky Way makes it difficult to observe. The image looks through the plane of our galaxy to show IC 342 beyond it.
Also known as Caldwell 5, IC 342 is among the brightest members of the IC 342/Maffei group. The group lies about 10 million light-years away, relatively close to the Local Group, which includes the Milky Way.
The Milky Way’s foreground has complicated efforts to understand IC 342’s history. The source notes that inaccurate accounting for the gas, dust and stars in the foreground contributed to earlier misunderstandings, including a theory that IC 342 had been ejected from the Local Group.
Dust within IC 342 also intermittently obscures the glow of hydrogen gas, which points to the presence of bright, young stars. Maps of the galaxy’s magnetic fields suggest they may play a substantial role in the still-open question of how spiral arms form.
Sources: NASA Breaking News.