The gravitational perturbation from the bar causes interstellar gas and dust clouds to form a pair of spiral arms that extend from the ends of the bar. Young luminous hot stars, born out of the interstellar clouds, give these arms a prominent appearance and a blue color. The bar and spiral pattern rotates clockwise, as seen from us. One complete rotation n takes about 350 million years. The field measures about 7 arcmin x 7 armin.
North is up and East is left. .
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