NASA
@science
Spotlight: This delicate blue group of stars - actually an irregular galaxy- sits some 30 million light-years away. It may seem to have no discernable structure, but it has been found to have a bar of stars running through its center. These structures are common throughout the universe, and are found within the majority of spiral, many irregular, and some lenticular galaxies. Two of our closest cosmic neighbors, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, are barred, indicating that they may have once been barred spiral galaxies that were disrupted or torn apart by the gravitational pull of the Milky Way.
Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA