The Galaxy with Ghostly Spiral Arms

This is a composite image of spiral galaxy M106 (NGC 4258). Optical data from the Digitized Sky Survey is shown in yellow, radio data from the Very Large Array appears purple, X-ray data from Chandra is coded blue, and infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope appears red. The anomalous arms appear as purple and blue emission.

The Galaxy with Ghostly Spiral Arms
Credit: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Maryland/A.S. Wilson et al. Optical: Pal.Obs. DSS; IR: NASA/JPL-Caltech; VLA & NRAO/AUI/NSF

Gray arrow  See related news release, "Mystery spiral arms explained?"