Explanation:
Barred spiral galaxy NGC 4731 lies some 65 million light-years away.
The lovely island universe resides in the large
Virgo
cluster of galaxies.
Colors in this
well-composed, cosmic
portrait, highlight plentiful, young, bluish
star clusters along the galaxy's
sweeping spiral arms.
Its broad arms are distorted by gravitational interaction
with a fellow Virgo cluster member, giant elliptical
galaxy NGC 4697.
NGC 4697 is beyond this frame above and to the left,
but a smaller irregular galaxy NGC 4731A can be seen
near the bottom in impressive detail with its own young
blue star clusters.
Of course, the individual, colorful,
spiky stars in the scene
are much closer, within our
own Milky Way galaxy.
NGC 4731
itself is well over 100,000 light-years across.
