Cepheids in NGC 300

Some of the Cepheid type stars in the spiral galaxy NGC 300 (at the centre of the markers), as they were identified by Wolfgang Gieren and collaborators during the research programme for which the WFI images of NGC 300 were first obtained. In this area of NGC 300, there is also a huge cloud of ionized hydrogen (a "HII shell"). It measures about 2,000 light-years in diameter, thus dwarfing even the enormous Tarantula Nebula in the LMC.