NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for November 4, 2026 features IC 342, also known as Caldwell 5, a spiral galaxy roughly 10 million light years away. The image, credited to Artem Mironov, looks through the gas, dust and stars of the Milky Way's plane to reveal the galaxy, described in the accompanying explanation as one of the brightest members of the IC 342/Maffei group.

According to the APOD text, that group sits relatively close to the Local Group that includes our Milky Way. The explanation says inaccurate accounting of the crowded, dusty foreground of our own galaxy has led to misunderstandings about IC 342's history, including a theory that it was ejected from the Local Group.

The text adds that IC 342's own dust intermittently blocks the glow of hydrogen gas, indicating bright, young stars, and that magnetic field maps suggest magnetic fields may contribute substantially to the puzzle of how spiral arms form. The page was written and edited by Keighley Rockcliffe, Robert Nemiroff, Jerry Bonnell and Cecilia Chirenti.