In today's image, we see an example of a spiral galaxy. We can see many of the distinct features of star formation here including the dark dusty regions, the blue color of the spiral arms from the light of hot, young stars, and the pink glow of hydrogen gas excited by ultraviolet light from these hot stars.

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This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website directly at: Astronomy Picture of the Day. You can use the archive link below the image to select the photo corresponding to the date of this podcast.

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