Explanation:
Big, bright, and beautiful,
spiral galaxy M83
lies a mere twelve million light-years away, near the southeastern
tip of the very long constellation
Hydra.
This
cosmic
close-up, a mosaic based on data from the
Hubble Legacy Archive, traces dark dust and young, blue star
clusters along prominent spiral arms that lend M83
its nickname, The Southern Pinwheel.
Typically found near the edges of the thick dust lanes,
a wealth of reddish star forming regions
also suggest another popular moniker for M83,
The Thousand-Ruby
Galaxy.
Dominated by light from older stars, the bright yellowish core
of M83 lies at the upper right.
The core is also bright at x-ray energies
that reveal a high concentration of neutron stars and black holes left from
an intense burst of star formation.
In fact, M83 is a member of a group of galaxies that includes
active galaxy Centaurus A.
The close-up field of view spans over 25,000 light-years at the
estimated distance
of M83.
