IC 2574 is commonly known as Coddington's Nebula after the American astronomer Edwin Coddington, who discovered it in 1898.
Astronomers classify IC 2574 as a dwarf irregular galaxy due to its relatively small size and lack of organisation or structure.
These galaxies are thought to resemble some of the earliest that formed in the Universe. Dwarf irregular galaxies thus serve
as useful "living fossils" for studying the evolution of more complex galaxy types such as our home, the Milky Way, with its
central bar and spiral arms. Pink bubbles blown by supernova explosions abound in this faint galaxy. The colour of these shells
comes from hydrogen gas irradiated by newborn stars. The formation of the stars was triggered by shock waves from earlier
supernova detonations that compressed material together. The expanding shells in IC 2574 are of particular interest to astronomers as they reveal how
supernova-driven explosions ignite round after round of star formation. The constellation containing IC 2574 is
Ursa Major (The Great Bear). IC 2574 is located about 12 million light-years away, belonging to the Messier 81
group of galaxies. This group is named after the most prominent galaxy in its midst, the big, bright and accordingly
well-studied spiral galaxy Messier 81.
[Text from ESA/NASA]