NGC 2442 is a spiral galaxy located 50 million light-years away from Earth, in the constellation of the Flying Fish. It has a relatively simple structure, which is shown here in great detail thanks to this image created by combining data obtained from the Hubble Space Telescope and ESO.
At the center of the galaxy is a small nucleus, which appears yellowish due to the very old stars located within it. The nucleus is crossed by a rectangular bar, which contains various brown dust lanes inside. From the two ends of the bar develop two long, well-defined spiral arms, the upper of which is slightly distorted due to interaction with a nearby galaxy (not visible in this image). The spiral arms are an explosion of color: blue is due to newly formed young stars, pink to the nebulae within which stars are being formed, and finally brown due to the dust.
Image Credit: Hubble, ESO, R. Gendler, R. Colombari.