#messier 83

"The Southern Spiral Messier 83." Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. 1942.

This is Messier 83! 🌌🌌🌌

This galaxy is unique in the fact that a lot of star formation actually occurs on the edges of the galaxy - proving the “density wave theory” that was founded in the 1960s. The large bar in the center of this galaxy and its elegant spiral arms draw similarities with the famous Pinwheel Galaxy as well! 🍭🍭🍭

This dramatic image of the galaxy Messier 83 was captured by the Wide Field Imager at ESO's La Silla Observatory, located high in the dry desert mountains of the Chilean Atacama Desert. Messier 83 lies roughly 15 million light-years away towards the huge southern constellation of Hydra (the sea serpent). It stretches over 40 000 light-years, making it roughly 2.5 times smaller than our own Milky Way. However, in some respects, Messier 83 is quite similar to our own galaxy. Both the Milky Way and Messier 83 possess a bar across their galactic nucleus, the dense spherical conglomeration of stars seen at the centre of the galaxies.

Messier 83