                        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.

                              2026 February 19

                        IC 2574: Coddington's Nebula
                    Image Credit & Copyright: Dane Vetter

   Explanation: Grand spiral galaxies often seem to get all the glory,
   flaunting their young, bright, blue star clusters in beautiful,
   symmetric spiral arms. But small, irregular galaxies form stars too. In
   fact, dwarf galaxy IC 2574 shows clear evidence of intense star forming
   activity in its telltale reddish regions of glowing hydrogen gas. Just
   as in spiral galaxies, the turbulent star-forming regions in IC 2574
   are churned by stellar winds and supernova explosions spewing material
   into the galaxy's interstellar medium and triggering further star
   formation. A mere 12 million light-years distant, IC 2574 is part of
   the M81 group of galaxies, seen toward the northern constellation Ursa
   Major. Also known as Coddington's Nebula, the faint but intriguing
   island universe is about 50,000 light-years across, discovered by
   American astronomer Edwin Coddington in 1898.

                       Tomorrow's picture: in the dark
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