Image of the Day: A Spectacular Starburst Galaxy

N 2403 is a showy face-on spiral starburst galaxy in Camelopardalis- The Giraffe, with numerous many bright emission nebulae which can be seen as bright pink regions in the spiral arms. This galaxy is estimated to be around 12 million light years away. The galaxy is the home of numerous Wolf-Rayet stars are evolved, massive stars (over 20 solar masses), which are losing mass rapidly by means of a very strong stellar wind, with speeds up to 2000 km/s. Wolf-Rayet stars are very hot, with surface temperatures in the range of 25,000 K to 50,000 K. It is believed that the star in the galaxy NGC 2770 that exploded into a supernova on January 9, 2008 — SN 2008D, the first supernova ever observed in the act of exploding — was a Wolf-Rayet star,