Explanation:
This elegant island universe is cataloged
as
NGC 2683.
It lies a mere 16 million light-years distant toward
the northern constellation
Lynx.
A spiral galaxy comparable to our own Milky Way, NGC 2683 is seen
nearly edge-on in
the
cosmic vista.
Blended light from a large population of old, yellowish stars forms
the remarkably bright galactic core.
Their starlight silhouettes the dust lanes along winding spiral arms, dotted
with NGC 2683's young blue star clusters.
The sharp image was recorded through the lens of a
refracting telescope
that shows brighter foreground Milky Way stars as colorful and round, lacking
diffraction spikes
characteristic of images from
reflecting
telescopes with internal supports.
The many more distant galaxies scattered through the background appear
as fuzzy, extended sources.
