Spiral Galaxy NGC 3949

Spiral galaxy NGC 3949 lies about 50 million light-years from Earth. It is a member of a loose cluster of approximately 35 to 50 galaxies located in the direction of the constellation Ursa Major (the Great Bear) the brightest member being Messier 109. It is one of the larger galaxies of this group, but is only about half the size of the Milky Way. Like our galaxy, NGC 3949 has a blue disk of young stars peppered with bright pink star-birth regions. In contrast to this bluish disk, the bright central bulge is made up of mostly older, redder stars. This image was created from Hubble data taken with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 in October 2001. Separate exposures through blue, visible, and near-infrared filters were combined to make the final picture.