Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cygnus (Cyg)  ·  Contains:  NGC 6946
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The Fireworks Galaxy, NGC 6946, Caldwell 12, Steven Bellavia
The Fireworks Galaxy, NGC 6946, Caldwell 12
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The Fireworks Galaxy, NGC 6946, Caldwell 12

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The Fireworks Galaxy, NGC 6946, Caldwell 12, Steven Bellavia
The Fireworks Galaxy, NGC 6946, Caldwell 12
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The Fireworks Galaxy, NGC 6946, Caldwell 12

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Description

NGC 6946 (Caldwell12, PGC 65001, UGC 11597, Arp 29) - The Fireworks Galaxy is a face-on intermediate spiral galaxy with a small bright nucleus, in the constellation Cepheus . It is 25.2 million light years from Earth. Discovered by William Herschel on 9 September 1798, this well-studied galaxy has a diameter of approximately 40,000 light-years, about one-third of the Milky Way's size and it contains roughly half the number of stars as the Milky Way.

It is called the "Fireworks Galaxy" because it has an unusually high rate of supernovae production, with 10 discovered in the last 100 years, compared to our Milky Way galaxy, whose rate averages just one supernova event per century. This is the more remarkable as our Galaxy comprises twice as many stars

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The Fireworks Galaxy, NGC 6946, Caldwell 12, Steven Bellavia

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