This is the Fireworks Galaxy, photographed from my driveway.
It is named the "Fireworks Galaxy" because of the high number of supernova explosions that have been detected there. Even though it is 1/3rd the size of the Milky Way Galaxy, it has had 5x the number of supernova explosions in the past 100 years.
One of these explosions occurred when the Hubble Space Telescope was focused on the Fireworks Galaxy in 2009. The Hubble detected a star growing brighter and brighter over several months, which became over one million times brighter than the Sun, before it suddenly disappeared (likely becoming a black hole).
This galaxy is 25 million light years away and 40,000 light years across. That means you'd have to travel at the speed of light for 40,000 years to make it from one side to the other.
It looks like there are some additional galaxies in the top right of the photo, but I can't figure out what they are (yet).
Full size photo here: https://astrob.in/full/siulqc/0/ (click "Full Resolution" at the top right)
Full size photo here: https://astrob.in/full/siulqc/0/ (click "Full Resolution" at the top right)
