M 74
From Slackerpedia Galactica
Messier 74 (aka NGC 628) is a grand design spiral galaxy in the constellation Pisces. It's a spiral of type Sc, with oodles of star forming regions that make that pretty blue color. M 74 was in the news a few years ago, not just for this pretty picture, but for the fact that it had two supernovae in two consecutive years: SN 2002ap in 2002 and SN 2003gd in 2003. SN 2002ap was a hypernova -- a collapse of a supermassive star -- and produced a "not quite Gamma-Ray Burst" known as an X-Ray Flash.
