I Are the red dots in the Whirlpool Galaxy individual red supergiants?

[swampwiz]

I was looking at a photo of this galaxy, and noticed a bunch of red dots in it. Could it be that these dots are individual red supergiants?

(I used the photo at the Wikipedia article for reference.)

 

[phyzguy]

No. The red dots are H-II regions, which are large clouds of hydrogen gas which have been ionized by hot young stars embedded in them. They are much larger than individual stars.

 

[davenn]

No. The red dots are H-II regions, which are large clouds of hydrogen gas which have been ionized by hot young stars embedded in them. They are much larger than individual stars.

Yes, exactly ... those types of red patches can be seen in many galaxies, including our own one