A <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosaics" class="extiw" title="w:Mosaics">mosaic</a> of images from <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wide-field_Infrared_Survey_Explorer" title="Category:Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer">WISE</a> in the <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Constellations" title="Category:Constellations">constellation</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassiopeia" class="extiw" title="w:Cassiopeia">Cassiopeia</a>. This region contains a large <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/star" class="extiw" title="w:star">star</a> forming <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/nebula" class="extiw" title="w:nebula">nebula</a> within the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way" class="extiw" title="w:Milky Way">Milky Way Galaxy</a>, called IC 1805 (sometimes called the Heart Nebula), a portion of which is seen at the right of the image.  IC 1805 is over 6 thousand light-years from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/earth" class="extiw" title="w:earth">earth</a>. Also visible in this image are two nearby galaxies, Maffei 1 and Maffei 2.  In visible <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/light" class="extiw" title="w:light">light</a> these galaxies are hidden by [[:Category:|<i>dust</i>]] in IC 1805 and were unknown until 1968 when Paolo Maffei found them using <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Infrared" title="Category:Infrared">infra-red</a> observations. Both galaxies contain billions of stars and are located some 10 million light-years away (well outside our own Milky Way Galaxy). Maffei 1 is the bluish elliptical object in the centre of the image. It is a Lenticular type galaxy, which has a disk-like structure and a central bulge but no spiral structure or appreciable dust content. Maffei 2 (to the upper left of Maffei 1) is a <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Spiral_galaxies" title="Category:Spiral galaxies">Spiral type galaxy</a> that also has a disk shape, but with a bar-like central bulge and two prominent dusty spiral arms.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/WISE Team
<p><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://wise.ssl.berkeley.edu/gallery_Maffei_1_2.html">WISE</a>
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<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1610.html">NASA Image of the Day</a>