IC10

IC10 is an irregular galaxy in the constellation Cassiopeia that lies abut 2.3 million light years away.  It has a diameter about the same as the Small Magellenic cloud or around 5,000 light years.  This galaxy is part of the local cluster of galaxies and is approaching the Milky Way.  It also has a very large population of Wolf Rayet stars and, indeed, is a star burst galaxy.  This can be seen by the large amounts of Ha present.  The galaxy also has a very large amount of Hydrogen gas around it.

Observations of selected stars in this galaxy have also revealed the presence of a very large stellar black hole with a mass of 24-33 solar masses. 

An infrared image of this galaxy (processed from NASA WISE data) is shown below at the same scael and orientation.  Some of the characteristics of the visible image are apparent in the IR data -- especially the (long wavelenght) bright core.