Bright Galaxy NGC 2903

Spiral galaxy NGC 2903 is only some 20 million light-years distant in the constellation Leo . One of the brighter galaxies visible from the northern hemisphere, it is surprisingly missing from Charles Messier's famous catalog of celestial sights . This impressively sharp color image shows off the galaxy's beautiful blue spiral arms. Included in the ground-based telescopic view are intriguing details of NGC 2903's central regions -- a remarkable mix of old and young star clusters with immense dust and gas clouds. In fact , NGC 2903 exhibits an exceptional rate of star formation activity near its center, also bright in radio, infrared , ultraviolet, and x-ray bands . Just a little smaller than our own Milky Way, NGC 2903 is about 80,000 light-years across.