Media Information
 
 
 
Collection:
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Collection
Title:
M83: The Southern Pinwheel Galaxy from VLT
Explanation:
M83 [ http://www.seds.org…] is one of the closest and brightest spiral galaxies [ http://www.seds.org…] on the sky. Visible with binoculars in the constellation of Hydra [ http://www.astro.wi…constellations/Hydra .html ], majestic spiral arms have prompted its nickname as the Southern Pinwheel. Although discovered 250 years ago, only much later [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] was it appreciated that M83 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] was not a nearby gas cloud, but a barred spiral galaxy [ http://en.wikipedia…] much like our own Milky Way Galaxy [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…]. M83, pictured above [ http://www.eso.org/…pr-18-99.html ] in a photograph from a Very Large Telescope [ http://www.eso.org/…], is a prominent member of a group of galaxies that includes Centaurus A [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] and NGC 5253, all of which lie about 15 million light years [ http://chandra.harv…] distant. Several bright supernova explosions [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] have been recorded in M83. An intriguing double circumnuclear ring [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] has been discovered at the center of M83 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…].
Credit and Copyright:
FORS Team [ http://www.eso.org/…], 8.2-meter VLT [ http://www.eso.org/…], ESO [ http://www.eso.org/]
facet_where:
Milky Way Galaxy
facet_where:
Pinwheel Galaxy
facet_where:
M83
facet_where:
Southern Pinwheel Galaxy
facet_where:
Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
facet_what:
ESO
facet_what:
Centaurus
facet_what:
VLT
facet_what:
Very Large Telescope
facet_what:
Hydra
original url:
http://antwrp.gsfc.…
UID:
SPD-APOD-ap051218

M83: The Southern Pinwheel Galaxy from VLT
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