Nice Astronomy Picture of the Day ...

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070503.html


"Explanation: Grand spiral galaxies often seem to get all the glory.
Their newly formed, bright, blue star clusters along beautiful,
symmetric spiral arms are guaranteed to attract attention. But small
irregular galaxies form stars too, like NGC 4449, located about 12
million light-years away. The well-studied galaxy is similar in size,
and often compared to our Milky Way's satellite galaxy, the Large
Magellanic Cloud (LMC). This lovely color image shows NGC 4449's
general bar shape, also characteristic of the LMC, with scattered
young blue star clusters. Near the bottom is the pinkish glow of
atomic hydrogen gas, the telltale tracer of massive star forming
regions. NGC 4449 is a member of a group of galaxies found in the
constellation Canes Venatici. In fact, interactions with nearby
galaxies are thought to have influenced star formation in NGC 4449."