The IC 342 galaxy is located 11 million light-years away in the constellation Camelopardalis and would be considered one of the brightest in the night sky were it not for its dark location. It is one of the most difficult targets to photograph, because despite its brightness, the sky that is covered with gas, bright stars and dark cosmic dust, make this large amount of material in our galaxy, makes IC 342 Known as “The Hidden Galaxy”.
This beautiful galaxy, also known as UGC 2847, LEDA 13826 and Caldwell 5, was discovered in 1892 by the British astronomer William Frederick Denning (without formal scientific training but with great success in his field).
This Hubble Space Telescope image shows the central region of IC 342, one of the brightest galaxies in the IC 342/Maffei group. It is made up of hot blue stars and red regions containing gas and dust. All of these regions revolve around a bright core.
In order for astronomers to see its intricate spiral structure, they must look through a vast amount of material contained in the Milky Way.
“Despite its relatively bright magnitude of 8.4, this galaxy does not stand out in the sky ,” the Hubble astronomers said. “It appears near the equator of the Milky Way’s pearly disk, which is packed with thick cosmic gas, dark dust, and bright stars that obscure our view. If it weren’t obscured by so much interstellar matter, the Hidden Galaxy would be one of the brightest galaxies in our sky.”
The core we see of IC 342 shows tendrils of dust intertwined in spectacular arms that envelop a glowing core of hot gas and stars . It is a zone of ionized atomic hydrogen, so it represents an energetic birthplace of stars, “where thousands of stars can form over a couple of million years. Each extremely hot young blue star emits ultraviolet light, further ionizing the surrounding hydrogen.
Reference. NASA / ESA / Hubble / P. Sell, University of Florida / P. Kaaret, University of Iowa / G. Kober, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / Catholic University of America.
