Discover the cosmosEach day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
Explanation:Beautiful and brightspiral galaxy M83lies 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, reddishstar forming regionsthat 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 brightat x-ray energies, showing a high concentration of neutron stars and black holes left from an intense burst of star formation.
This sharp, groundbased telescopic view also features foreground Milky Way stars and distant background galaxies.
APOD’s main NASA site ismoving:Fromapod.nasa.govtoscience.nasa.gov/apod Tomorrow’s picture:lunar sun catcher