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Astronomy Picture of the Day - M83: The Southern Pinwheel
NASA ^ | 16 Jan, 2025 | Image Credit: CTIO, NOIRLab, DOE, NSF, AURA; Processing: T. A. Rector (U. Alaska Anchorage/NOIRLab),

Posted on 01/16/2025 1:31:05 PM PST by MtnClimber

Explanation: Beautiful and bright spiral galaxy M83 lies a some twelve million light-years away, near the southeastern tip of the very long constellation Hydra. Prominent spiral arms traced by dark dust lanes and blue star clusters lend this galaxy its popular name, The Southern Pinwheel. Still, reddish star forming regions that dot this cosmic pinwheel's spiral arms have suggested another nickname, the Thousand-Ruby Galaxy. A mere 40,000 light-years across, smaller than the Milky Way, M83 is a member of a group of galaxies that includes active galaxy Centaurus A. In fact, the core of M83 itself is bright at x-ray energies, showing a high concentration of neutron stars and black holes left from an intense burst of star formation. This sharp color image also features spiky foreground Milky Way stars and distant background galaxies. The image data was captured with the Dark Energy Camera and Blanco 4-meter telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory.


TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; nasa
To be added or removed from the Astronomy Picture of the Day ping list please send me a request via "Private Reply" (Mail).

For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

1 posted on 01/16/2025 1:31:05 PM PST by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

2 posted on 01/16/2025 1:31:27 PM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: 21stCenturion; 21twelve; 4everontheRight; A Navy Vet; A_perfect_lady; abb; AFB-XYZ; AFPhys; ...
Pinging the APOD list

๐Ÿช ๐ŸŒŸ ๐ŸŒŒ ๐Ÿ”

3 posted on 01/16/2025 1:32:06 PM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber
Southern pinwheels?


4 posted on 01/16/2025 1:49:45 PM PST by Magnum44 (...against all enemies, foreign and domestic... )
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To: MtnClimber

Wow.


5 posted on 01/16/2025 1:58:05 PM PST by No name given ( Anonymous is who youโ€™ll know me as)
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To: MtnClimber

Thousand-Ruby Galaxyโ€. Nice.


6 posted on 01/16/2025 2:24:22 PM PST by telescope115 (I NEED MY SPACE!!! ๐Ÿ”ญ)
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To: No name given

You’re not wrong!


7 posted on 01/16/2025 4:25:43 PM PST by mitch5501 ("make your calling and election sure:for if ye do these things ye shall never fall")
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To: Magnum44

LOL


8 posted on 01/17/2025 6:15:13 AM PST by caddie
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