Explanation:
From our vantage point in the
Milky Way Galaxy,
we see NGC 1232 face-on.
Nearly 200,000 light-years across, the big, beautiful
spiral galaxy
is located some 47 million light-years away in the flowing southern
constellation of Eridanus.
This sharp, multi-color, telescopic image
of NGC 1232 includes remarkable details of the distant island universe.
From the core outward, the galaxy’s
colors change from the yellowish
light of old stars in the center to young blue star
clusters and reddish star forming regions along the grand, sweeping
spiral arms.
NGC 1232’s apparent, small, barred-spiral companion galaxy
is cataloged as NGC 1232A.
Distance estimates place it much farther though,
around 300 million light-years away, and unlikely to be
interacting with NGC 1232.
Of course, the prominent bright star with the spiky appearance
is much closer than NGC 1232 and lies well within our own Milky Way.