M83

One of the highlights of the Southern sky, M83 is often referred to as the Southern Pinwheel. It is a colorful barred spiral starburst galaxy located only 15 million light years away in Hydra.

M83 has an unusual double nucleus and houses a super massive black hole at its center apparently surrounded by an asymmetric disc of stars. It has also been the home of at least six observed supernovae and nearly 300 supernovae remnants have been identified.

Imaged in LRGB and H alpha on our PlaneWave CDK 1000 at Observatorio El Sauce, Chile.

Copyright: Mike Selby and Mark Hanson